Turn the Blade
by etienneofthewestwind
Summary: Major Seed AU: Chapter 3: In one turn, the Heliopolis students find themselves aboard the Archangel as battle with ZAFT starts up again. In another one, Kira delivers harsh news to Katherine, and Le Creuset lays plans for the blade's new bearer.
1. Prologue

**Turn the Blade  
by étienneofthewestwind**

**Summary: ** Major AU & Witchblade Crossover: A civil war turned into an ethnic conflict that scorched a world. One soldier's mastery of an ancient artifact allowed her to change a key event. But without her memory, will she counteract her change? Kira/Flay, Katherine/Lucas

**Disclaimer:** Gundam Seed belongs to Bandai and various related entities, not me. All I can claim is my skewering of the original universe. Witchblade isn't mine either. I've never read the manga or original comics, nor seen the anime. Therefore, anything about the blade herein is either from the TNT series or created by me to fit the Seed frame.

* * *

_Alarms blared through the cockpit of the trashed mobile suit. Unable to move her legs, the pilot stared dully at the monitor. Debris filled the surrounding space: pieces of mobile armors, mobile suits, warships... and colonies. Half the PLANTs no longer existed. Of the remaining half, half showed enough structural damage to be uninhabitable. None of the colonies that made Junius City survived. Without their agricultural colonies, the PLANTs' survivors would be at the mercy of those on Earth. _

_And mercy ran out on both sides long ago._

If the earth can even produce food, anyway, _she thought as her green eyes drifted to the display of Earth. Once a beautiful orb of white marbled over blue seas and recognizable continents of green and brown, the earth now resembled a ball of muddy cotton. The GENESIS strike on Washington had thrown so much crap into the atmosphere, that the surface might not see sunlight for years._

_She felt the stone in that damned bracelet heat up. Visions swarmed her: _

_Huge arrays of ultraviolet lamps damaged by thieves after the food they nurtured... _

_People and animals suffering from radiation poisoning... _

_Arctic temperatures in the tropics..._

_Malnutrition causing disease in Natural and Coordinator alike... _

_Riots..._

_PLANT warring against PLANT for scant resources... _

_Rampant piracy... _

_Refugees fleeing to the Mars colony. The colony refusing admittance..._

_"DAMN BRACLET!" she snarled. She slammed the top of her wrist into the cockpit wall. Even without the padding of her pressure suit, she could not have cracked the red gem. "DON'T SHOW ME THIS!" The pilot swung her arm again, pushing with her legs for more force._

_Emerald green eyes widened as she realized what she had done. "No!" she breathed. "Don't make me live through that!"_

_Abruptly, she found herself standing in the void of space. The earth and wreckage vanished. While she still wore her red and white flight suit, her helmet had disappeared. Short, dark blue hair lay plastered to her skin from the sweat of her recent battle. A silver clip shaped like a cat in mid-leap held her bangs to the left._

"Katherine," _a familiar voice called. The young woman turned._

_Someone who looked exactly like her mother stood there. The blue haired woman wore an AD 1920's flapper dress and stood over the planet Jupiter. A colony sat in orbit around the gas giant. _"Behold," _the woman instructed, rotating a finger in a clockwise circle as the colony exploded. _"Time turns--" _her finger reversed course-- _"both ways." _The colony reformed._

"This is a one-time power." _A teenage boy had appeared on Katherine's left. The same age as the pilot, the young man wore a high quality green kimono with yellow embroidered dragons. The bangs of his brown hair hung around his eyes. _"And you may only remember very little."

_Katherine turned around and looked up, somehow knowing she would see the ruined Earth Sphere. "So all this could just happen again?"_

"History is a complex beast," _the amethyst-eyed boy replied. _"Sometimes a change the size of a pebble affects the final outcome more than boulder-sized differences. The key is to find critical pebbles and fight to hold onto one or two."

_"Then there is hope." Katherine turns to the young man. "The choice is obvious. This damn war wasn't worth it." _

_The boy shook his head. _"Even if you could turn past the moment you bonded with the Witchblade, you could not prevent the war. Too many factors spawned it. At best, you_'_d have delayed it."

_"The war was inevitable..." Katherine murmured as the faces of her lost comrades flashed through her mind. "...But not the outcome?" She met her companion's eyes with her own. He nodded. "I need to stop the N-Jammer Canceller's development," she said. Then she thought, _And save you, if I can…

"Perhaps. When you tap into the power, it shall reveal when you need to go--and what to change."

_Katherine opened her mouth to ask how to use the power, but the knowledge abruptly filled her awareness. She raised her right arm straight up--_

"And Katherine." _She looked at the boy. _"I was nothing to this war. No individual is worth risking _that_." _He gestured at the sullied Earth._

_Emerald eyes locked with amethyst. "I know," she admitted. "I'm sorry."_

"I know," _the teen smiled. _"Good luck."

_A thin sword blade shot through the back of her white glove. Once fully extended, blue and purple lightning struck the sword and arced around Katherine in a sphere. The crackling energy grew stronger until the bottom of her mind unhinged._

_Knowledge of _everything _assaulted her awareness: Infinite possibilities within infinite worlds. The soul's ability to exist in multiple dimensions and centuries at once. Interstellar societies. Post apocalyptic ninja cultures. _

_Dearka Elthman as a five-foot-two prima ballerina. _

_As the onslaught of images threatened to overwhelm her, the worlds she saw narrowed themselves to the ones most like her own. Some of those worlds had minor changes, such as Ezalia Jule having only one son. Others had larger differences, like the Bloody Valentine hitting a different colony, though still one of the food producers. _

_The wars had varying events and outcomes, but their paths paralleled her world's--until the day she bonded with the Witchblade. Some followed her world's violent march to extinction. Others split off in different directions, but patterns repeated. In one of those patterns, a certain brunette became something to the war._

_The moment she decided her target, Katherine felt herself falling. The muck drained out of the earth's atmosphere. Shattered hourglasses healed into functional colonies. OMNI machines walked backwards from Victoria. Panama's mass driver grew into place; a hole in Alaska became a military base. The archipelago nation of Aube rose like a phoenix from its ashes. Resistance fighters prowled Africa. Chunks of shattered asteroid formed the Artemis base. Aube's resource satellite, Heliopolis, reassembled. _

_Katherine exited the cockpit of her suit. She swung the Witchblade as she ran backwards. Two people crouched for cover. Katherine leapt back--_

Two enemies remained, though just the woman was armed. Katherine pushed forward, deflecting bullets with her gauntlet. One of the blocked bullets ricocheted off the mobile suit and hit the woman in the arm. She fell back, dropping her weapon. Katherine charged in for the kill.

The strangest combination of déjà vu and wrongness caused Katherine to slow her advance. With every step, the feeling grew, yet she could _remember _maintaining her sprint. And before she even realized--

"_Kath… erine_?"

Katherine turned her attention from the woman to the man. A boy her age, the unarmed soldier had messy brown hair and vibrant purple eyes. "_Kira_?" Katherine breathed incredulously as she stopped and took a step back. The brunette teen pulled away from the woman and stood staring back at the frozen Katherine.

The woman produced a handgun, and Katherine leapt backwards as she dodged the bullets. She raced towards the cockpit of the second suit. As she powered on the G-weapon--identified in its OS as X-303 Aegis--she saw the other suit activate through the flames engulfing the factory.

Shaking off the surreal feelings, Katherine Lenore Zala stood the humanoid robot up and piloted it away.


	2. False Neutrality

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Witchblade nor Gundam Seed.

* * *

"Something wrong Katherine?" Katherine looked up from the flight helmet in her hands. In front of her stood an older boy in an identical red and white flight suit. His blue eyes looked curious.

"Isaac?" Katherine asked.

"You're awfully quiet," the boy elaborated.

"I think she's nervous," Isaac's twin, Zachary Jule, said. The only difference from Isaac's appearance was the length of his hair. Instead of cut short at chin level, he wore his white hair pulled back into a low ponytail. "It's so unlike you."

"Infiltrating the colony will be child's play," a blond beanpole commented idly as he walked out of the locker room. "They never even considered that we'd attack. You're not turning chicken, are you, Katherine?"

"Of course not, Dearka!" a petite girl with a foot long emerald braid exclaimed as a redhead, Rusty McKenzie, walked up behind Dearka. "Neutral is not the same as pacifistic! We can't let our guard down just because Aube hasn't taken sides in the war!"

"Nicole is right."

The six pilots turned to a white uniformed man. He had shoulder length blond hair. In addition to the standard elite commander's uniform, he wore a pair of white gloves and a silver mask over his upper face. "Commander Le Creuset!" Isaac exclaimed.

"Aube may not appear to have much in the way of a space force, but their naval technology is first rate. Should they decide to join the Alliance, our Earthside troops may have a difficult time. Besides, the colony could have protections we don't know about.

"You're success or failure will greatly impact the rest of the war," their commander continued. "Don't let us down."

The six pilots snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes sir! For the glory of ZAFT!" they exclaimed.

They put on their helmets and floated into the shuttle. Dearka went in first and buckled himself in. As the others climbed in, he closed his eyes and bobbed his head in rhythm to some unplayed tune.

"But really, are we doing the right thing?" the redhead asked as he took his seat.

"What do you mean?" the longhaired twin demand.

"Mounting an operation like this against a neutral colony?" Rusty elaborated.

"How neutral can they be if they're making arms for the Earth Forces!?"

The redhead laughed. "I know, Zachary. You're right. That's unacceptable. But we don't have the council's approval--"

"If we wait for that, the Earth Forces will get their new weapons!" Next to Zachary, Dearka still boogied to invisible music.

"I know, I kno--"

"What's up, guys? Don't leave us waiting out here!" a blond man in green flight suit appeared on the ship's video display.

"Understood," Rusty replied. "Let's go!"

Beside him, Katherine closed her green eyes for a quick prayer. As the shuttle launched from the _Vesalius_, they opened again and stared at the target colony.

* * *

_Soft pink cherry blossoms fell from trees in a park. Above the trees, you could see the underside of a glass dome, and above that, the earth and stars. Street lamps lined the block surrounding the park. At one corner stood a pair of thirteen year-olds. The boy wore the green uniform of a local school._

_The girl held a green and yellow robotic bird in her hands. As she handed it to the boy, her blue hair and brown skirt swayed in the breeze created by Copernicus' air circulation system. "The PLANTs and Sponsor Nations will work things out," she said, giving the boy a reassuring smile. "It's pointless to take refuge, but my father..." _

_The bird hopped into the boy's hands. "You'll keep in touch, right?"_

_"Of course. And Kira," the girl turned to walk away. "You'll eventually come to the PLANTs, too. Right?" A cluster of petals blew in front of her face..._

"Birdy!"

An amethyst-eyed teen looked up from his memories. His mechanical pet circled in the air overhead before it coasted down to land next to the boy's laptop. "Hey, Birdy," Kira scratched the head of the green and yellow bird. "I was just thinking about your maker."

The robot's head cocked to the side. "Birdy?"

"In a couple months it'll be three years since she gave you to me," he continued. His eyes drifted to his laptop where the news feed covered the fighting in Taiwan. "She must hate seeing this."

"Kira!"

The brown-haired teen looked up at the approaching couple. The boy had brown hair darker than Kira's. Next to him strolled a girl in an orange dress. She wore her auburn hair in a short, cute style. "Tolle! Miriallia!" Kira called back.

"So this is where you've been hiding!" Tolle exclaimed cheerfully. "Professor Kato sent us to fetch you."

"Again?" Kira whined. "I'm still slugging through the stuff he dumped on me yesterday."

"No rest for the brilliant," Tolle quipped as they strolled over. "Come on, Miri and I have to work on our projects too."

"All right," Kira went to shutdown his laptop.

"Is that a new front?" Miriallia asked.

Kira nodded. "Koahsiung, apparently."

Miriallia leaned over his shoulder and skimmed the text accompanying the video feed. "Some of the ZAFT reinforcements are passing awfully close to the mainland," she commented. "You don't think anything'll happen there do you?"

"No way!" Tolle protested. "Aube's neutral. It'll never become a battlefield."

Kira frowned and stared to the side. Tolle's optimistic confidence sounded so much like Katherine's...

"Kira?"

The purple-eyed boy let out a gasp and stumbled back as he became aware of Tolle's face two inches from his own.

"You all right?" Tolle asked. "You just spaced out there."

"I'm fine." Kira closed up his laptop. "Let's go."

The cab station lay just a few blocks over. When the trio arrived, they found a few girls waiting for a car. Kira only recognized the redhead: Flay Allster, a cute girl who did some activities with Miriallia. "It's nothing like that!" Flay protested to the others.

"Liar!" a black haired girl exclaimed.

"Just spill all ready!" a girl in brown pigtails demanded.

"There's noth--"

"Miri!" the pigtailed girl called. "Flay got a love letter from Sai Argyle!"

As Miriallia's eyes widened, Kira and Tolle turned to each other in surprise. Flay's face turned as red as her hair. "THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HER!"

"Flay you should just say yes," her brunette friend persisted. "He's not bad looki--"

"Excuse me." The cluster of teens turned to see three men in their twenties. The one at the front had short, black hair. He wore a long red coat over a black shirt and dark sunglasses. "If you're not getting in, do you mind if we do?"

Kira flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry," he said as he stepped aside. The men climbed into the car.

* * *

As the car drove off, the black haired man removed his sunglasses, revealing purple eyes a shade darker than Kira's. "To think there are kids that young fighting on the frontlines," he said to the blue haired man next to him.

* * *

The asteroid loomed ahead of the shuttle. To avoid detection, the ZAFT shuttles had turned off their engines and coasted in, but they still traveled fast enough to make the growing wall of rock daunting. As if on cue, each shuttle deployed bags in front of them. They expanded and cushioned the shuttles from impacting the rock. The shuttle pilots then anchored the transports to the asteroid. Within seconds, the troops inside spilled out and glided along the rock surface.

They quickly pried open a maintenance hatch. A filter in their helmet windows allowed them to see the infrared beams of Heliopolis' security system. After a tense minute, their inside man disabled them. "Hurry up!" Zachary ordered. "We're ten seconds behind."

Katherine nodded absently as they followed their memorized route. That strange feeling she had had earlier returned: an unrelenting sense that she raced into her destiny.

For a soldier going into battle, destiny usually meant a sudden meeting with something deadly. Katherine hated the thought.

_Then again, I've always hated war, _Katherine thought. _But that hasn't stopped me from fighting one. If I do go out, it'll cost them. I just wish I'd spent more time with Lucas. And I'd like to have seen Kira again. Or at least know whatever he's up to now._

_Kira... What to you think of our war?_

The soldiers came to an intersection with another shaft. Through a grate, they could see into a vessel construction/maintenance bay. Inside sat the target vessel. Silver with red trim, it looked sleek and powerful.

Yet it also looked like an upside down holiday bird with its legs sticking out.

Katherine exchanged hand signals with the others. The ZAFT soldiers quickly split into three groups. Katherine's group floated ahead, to the next vertical shaft. They traveled down several meters before they came to a grate out of direct sight. Rusty and Peter popped the grate off. Rusty and Katherine kept watch on either side of the hatch, their rifles readied for trouble. The rest of the group--all in olive green pressure suits that would blend into the shadows better than elite red--entered the bay. They sneaked around placing explosive charges in the ship's vicinity. Katherine saw faint movement from the other groups' target areas.

Tim, Peter, and Lovong all returned without incident. After they glided into the shaft, Rusty and Katherine pulled their weapons back and kicked off after the others. The infiltration squad regrouped, then made their way toward the rotating section of the colony.

They just had to wait for the Naturals to take the bait.

* * *

On the bridge of the _Vesalius_, the masked commander looked up from his watch. "It's time."

The ship's gray uniformed captain, Frederick Ades, gave a flurry of orders in response to Le Creuset's words: "Weigh anchor! _Vesalius_ launch! Catapults on standby! Activate N-Jammers!"

The _Vesalius_ fired up her engines. Beside them, the smaller _Gamow_ did the same.

As the ships approached the colony, a staticy transmission made it through to the _Vesalius_. "Approaching ZAFT vessels, please respond... ZAFT vessels! Please respond!"

After a short burst of static, another voice, one that sounded less panicked came on the line. "This is a warning to all ZAFT personnel in the vicinity! Your actions are in direct violation of your treaty with our nation! Stop your advance at once! Repeat: stop your advance at once!"

Ades and Le Creuset ignored the transmission. "Launch the GINNs," Ades ordered. Within seconds, three giant robots launched from the _Vesalius_. They sped toward the colony, the _Gamow's_ mobile suits close behind.

* * *

Alarms blared through the station's bays and operation centers. "Captain--"

"Don't panic!" a brown haired man in the Earth Alliance uniform ordered a roomful of people. Half the room wore the same uniform. The other half wore turquoise coveralls. Behind the captain, a large window looked into the bay with the silver warship. "If we overreact, we'll play into their hands. Let's see how Heliopolis plans to handle this." He picked up a phone receiver.

After a short conversation, he hung up and faced the room again. " Newman! Badgerial!" The blue and black haired men that had passed Kira and his friends floated forward and saluted. "Get to Lieutenant Ramius! Commence transfer of the G-weapons at once!"

"Sir!" the black haired man answered crisply. The pair floated out of the other end of the room.

A minute later, explosions ripped through the bay and shattered the window.

* * *

As the GINNs closed on the colony, its defense force of yellow shuttles launched. The lead GINN quickly shot apart the first shuttle, and the space skirmish began. Seconds later, the derelict Earth transport launched, accompanied by three purple Moebius planes, and an orange Moebius Zero.

In the confusion, a pair of GINNs flew into the colony.

* * *

The ZAFT infiltrators perched on a rock ledge in the wall of the colony that rotated against the asteroid. The vantage point gave them a clear view of the roads to the freight lift and hatchway to the harbor. Zachary watched a vehicle convoy through a pair of binoculars. He saw a prone mobile suit in a flatbed-type transport. Several vehicles accompanied the convoy.

"That's it!" Zachary lowered the binoculars. "Just as Commander Le Creuset said."

"What?" Dearka drawled. "If we poke at 'em, they'll emerge from their hole? They _are _Naturals, you know."

Zachary relayed the coordinates to the GINNs that had entered the colony.

"Roger!" Miguel acknowledged. "Way to go! That was fast!"

The trio of GINNs approached the coordinates, shooting out roads and other infrastructure as they went.

* * *

In space, two Moebius fighters zipped along, exchanging fire with a pair of GINNs. A pair of the shuttles had reached the _Vesalius_. They exchanged fire with the ship, one even damaging the ZAFT vessel before it blasted them both out of the sky.

The orange Zero tangled with another GINN. The Zero's four huge gunbarrels detached from the spaceplane and blasted the GINN from multiple angles. The GINN survived the onslaught, and the gunbarrels retracted along wires to reattach to the Zero. As the GINN evaded the Moebius Zero, it crossed paths with one of the Moebius units.

The GINN sliced the purple mobile armor in two with its giant sword.

* * *

In the factory district, several people stood in a truck lot. "Lieutenant!" one of the men addressed Murrue Ramius, a woman in an orange jumpsuit. "We can't get through to the ship. Status unknown." Before the brunette could reply, a pair of GINNs flew overhead, shooting as they went. Ramius and the others ducked.

As the dust cleared, the Lieutenant raised her head. "Those are ZAFT's! Prep the X-105 and X-303 at once! Get them out of the factory district!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" one of the men replied as he ran off.

* * *

Kira and his friends spilled out of Kato's Morgenroete lab. In the hall, they met up with several others, none of whom knew any more than they did. The building continued to shake. Dust and plaster fell from the ceiling. The people made their way to the stairwell at the corner. Sai Argyle, a youth with mousy blond hair and tinted glasses opened the door. The stairwell was full of people racing up to ground level. "Hey, what's going on?" Sai asked.

"Beats me," some redhead said as he walked past.

"We're under attack by ZAFT!" the man behind the redhead said. "Some of their mobile suits entered the colony!" Beside Kira, a blond guy in a brown uniform gasped. "You kids better hurry to the shelters!" the man added as he started back up the stairs.

As everyone else crowded through the door, the blonde turned and ran in the opposite direction. "Hey, wait!" Kira called as he took off after the blonde.

"Kira!" Tolle called after him.

"I'll be right back!" Kira called over his shoulder. The next second the ceiling collapsed between them. The shaking threw Kira into the blonde. As the blonde's hat fell, releasing long, blond hair, Kira noticed a narrower waist than the brown coat implied. And a squishier chest.

"You're a... a girl!?" Kira blurted as the blonde's hand struck his cheek.

"What the fuck did you think I was?" said girl demanded as she pulled her hand back from the slap. "Well?"

"It's just that..."

The girl growled as another explosion roared. "Just go back to your friends! There's something I need to confirm!"

"Easy for you to say!" Kira looked around the ruined hall until he saw an unobstructed turn. "This way!" He grabbed the girl's arm.

"LET GO OF ME, JACKASS!" the girl yelled as Kira dragged her along.

"Ass?" Kira protested.

"I just..." Tears welled in the blonde's eyes. "Never thought we'd get involved!"

"Don't worry," Kira said as they continued to run. "We'll find a shelter."

"That's not what I meant! Well, a little, but..."

The pair emerged into sunlight. They stood on a fenced walkway. Below them lay a loading dock with several fuel trucks hooked to two large, drivable equipment beds. In each bed lay a prone mobile suit. Light gray in color, their shape was reminiscent of Samurai armor.

* * *

The GINNs caught up with the convoy of Earth mobile suits. Zachary and the others activated their jet packs and flew over to join the battle. The convoy's escort tanks opened fire, but proved little match for the GINNs. "Destroy anything that we can't take with us!" Zachary ordered as they flew to the battle. As they neared the convoy, they could clearly count the suits. "Intel said six. Are the other two still inside?"

"Rusty and I will continue on," Katherine replied. "You guys stay here and take these suits."

"Right," the long haired elite acknowledged. Rusty, Katherine, and their teams jetted off.

Beside him, Zachary heard his twin mutter, "Be careful." He glanced at Isaac, who's attention seemed fixed on one of their departing comrades.

_Oh, Jes-- _ "She's engaged to Lucas Clyne, Fuckwit!" Zachary pulled ahead of the pack.

"It's not like that!" Isaac spluttered.

They reached striking range. Zachary's attention focused on trading shots with the drivers and foot soldiers. He landed on the road's shoulder and raced to the cab of the nearest truck. He quickly dispatched the driver, with Isaac providing cover fire.

To the left, he saw Nicole lob a grenade into a truck. To the right, Dearka and Thompson traded fire with a trio of Earth soldiers. Zachary raised his weapon to even the odds. The GINNs, finished with the tanks, started in on the supply trucks.

* * *

Katherine and the others had located the remaining mobile suits easily enough: they advanced on the loading dock from which gunfire had sailed at them. She fired around the corner of the crate she used for cover. Tom and Lovong dashed her way, firing at the Earth Forces as they went. They drew enough of the enemy's attention that Katherine could step out to lob a grenade at them. The blast knocked a few of them down.

A second grenade from either Peter or Rusty dispatched another two. When the blast cleared, the unit advanced forward.

"WHY DID YOU BETRAY US, FATHER!?" some girl yelled randomly in the distance. The next second, Tom toppled forward, blood pooling around him. Lovong spun into his place. He took out the soldier who fired, even as the bullets cut him down.

Rusty and Katherine fell into place next to each other. They drew fire as Peter slipped around to snipe the last two enemies from the catwalk. A couple minutes later, he got into position--

"BEHIND YOU!"

The pair of redcoats barely took cover before a new handful of Earth soldiers opened fire. But they were effectively pinned between two crates with fire coming from two sides. _At least there's a wall behind us, _Katherine thought sardonically as she looked up. She did not see a way for anyone to get over them. "That didn't sound like Pete," she muttered, "Do we have friendlies here?"

To her left, Rusty shook his head. "It was someone warning the two on the suit. We just lucked out."

"Damn," Katherine replied. She switched out clips. She fired around the corner. After a quick burst, the weapon jammed. "SHIT!"

* * *

Back on the road, the first of four mobile suits activated. "Nice!" Zachary whistled as he stood the suit up. "This is actually impressive. What about yours, Isaac?"

Isaac kept typing commands as he replied, "The Ambush looks impressive, but I want to test it with a decent OS."

"You've not rewritten it, yet?"

"You _did _get in yours first," Isaac retorted acidly. "Give me a second!"

"Just hurry up! What about you Dearka?" Zachary demanded.

"Great!" the blonde replied. "Update activated. Nerve-links reconstructed. Calibration set. It'll move." He activated the suit, and stood it up next to Zachary's. Isaac stood his suit up a second later.

_Only one suit left, _Zachary thought. "Nicole?"

"Almost there," the girl replied as furious typing sounded over the radio. "Got it!" A few seconds later, her suit stood next to the other three.

"Where are Katherine and Rusty?" Dearka asked. "They're taking their time."

"_We _just got these suits moving," Nicole pointed out. "If they encountered additional Earth Forces..."

"We sent the rest of the unit after them. They'll be fine."

Zachary wished his twin sounded more confident in his own words. "In any case," he said, "we take these four back now. Le Creuset's orders were to capture these undamaged."

The four gray suits took off through the colony.

* * *

Katherine pulled back from the edge of the crate. "Where the hell's our backup?" she groused as she hastily examined her weapon.

"Considering we have the Naturals on our ass, I don't think they're alive to join us!" Rusty retorted. "Don't you carry a damn backup?"

"A handgun. Just like you."

Rusty stayed silent as he realized a handgun would not be his first choice to use against multiple assault rifles.

Katherine could not find any obvious problems with the rifle. She tried a different clip before discarding the rifle. "It's better than nothing. But first, do you have any grenades left?"

"This isn't a good place to throw from."

"I think I can roll them along the ground to the forces that snuck up on us."

"You _think_?" Rusty ducked further back as repeated bullet hits broke off a piece of the crate's corner. "Here," he pulled a pair of grenades out of his vest. "I hope you're better with grenades than bowling balls."

Katherine flushed as she pulled the first pin. "Just because Zachary won _that_ challenge," she protested as she sent the grenade off, "doesn't mean--"

"I'VE _SEEN _ZACHARY BOWL, ALL RIGHT?"

The grenade exploded. "JOSÉ! AARON!" a voice called from the right.

Katherine leaned out far enough to carefully aim at the distracted soldiers. She hit one before they fired back. A bullet grazed the side of her left arm as she pulled back. Cursing, Katherine pulled the pin and let the second grenade roll.

As soon as the grenade began rolling, one of the Earth soldiers began showering its path with bullets. One hit, and the grenade exploded, breaking open the crate to the right. The close wall of the crate fell over the ZAFT elites, protecting them from the shrapnel of the explosion.

Several pieces of medieval armor spilled onto the floor. A gauntlet with a red gem on the back of its hand flew into the air. As it fell in front of the crouching soldiers, Katherine instinctively threw her right arm out. The gauntlet fell onto her arm. Its underside contracted until it fit perfectly over her flight suit. Rusty's jaw dropped. "What the..."

Katherine twisted her arm to the side. The gauntlet repealed the bullets. Suddenly knowing what to do, Katherine pushed the piece of crate aside as she told Rusty to stay down. Katherine jumped into the air and flipped towards the soldiers to the right. She somersaulted over the Earth soldiers with speed and agility beyond any Coordinators'. As she tumbled overhead, she knew any bullets aimed at her would miss, a certainty that she could not have had had she tried a similar stunt with her jetpack.

Katherine landed behind one of the Earth soldiers. A blade emerged from the back of the gauntlet. Katherine lopped off the soldier's head before he could turn around. Two more remained on that end of the lot. Katherine quickly dispatched them.

She looked towards Rusty. He stood, back against the intact crate, gaping at her and--

Katherine suddenly realized that she stood among the flames ignited by one of the grenades. She looked down. ZAFT flight suits were flame resistant, but not flame proof. Her suit remained undamaged. The flames crackled loudly in the silent dock.

Her eyes widened as she looked towards the suits. One of the two shooters had left the far suit and was sneaking around the crate. "RUSTY!" Katherine sprinted forward as the gunman rounded the corner. Rusty got a few rounds off before the Earth soldier's bullets perforated him. The Natural fell, clutching his side. Katherine sliced through his heart as she ran past.

"Hamana!" the woman remaining on the suit called.

Katherine leapt onto a leg and saw that two enemies remained, though just the woman was armed. She pushed forward, deflecting bullets with her gauntlet. One of the blocked bullets ricocheted off the suit and hit the woman in the arm. She fell back, dropping her weapon. Katherine charged in for the kill.

The strangest combination of déjà vu and wrongness slowed her advance. With every step, the feeling grew, yet she could _remember _maintaining her sprint. And before she even realiz--

"_Kath… erine_?"

Katherine turned her attention from the woman to the man. A boy her age, the unarmed soldier had messy brown hair and vibrant purple eyes. "_Kira_?" Katherine breathed incredulously as she took a step back. The brunette teen pulled away from the woman and stood staring back at Katherine.

The woman pulled a handgun. Katherine leapt backwards as she dodged the bullets. She raced towards the cockpit of the second suit. As she powered on the G-weapon--identified in its OS as X303 Aegis--she saw the other suit activate through the flames engulfing the factory.

Shaking off the surreal feelings, Katherine stood the suit up and piloted away.

* * *

_Katherine leapt onto a leg and saw that two enemies remained, though just the woman was armed. She pushed forward, deflecting bullets with her gauntlet. One of the blocked bullets ricocheted off the suit and hit the woman in the arm. She fell back, dropping her weapon. Katherine charged in for the kill._

_She landed in front of the Earth woman and thrust the blade through her heart. The other enemy grabbed her arm as she pulled the blade free. "WHY ARE YOU PEOP--!?" Katherine whirled, swinging the blade as she did._

_Time slowed. Familiar purple eyes met hers. They stared wide with shock, then dulled. Katherine felt like she fell off a cliff. "KIRA!" _

_Blood bubbled out of the brunette's mouth. His knees unlocked. Kira fell forward and to the left, as Katherine took a step back, becoming aware of the blood coating her flight suit. "Kira... why?" An explosion sounded in the distance. "It--It's not you. It can't be." _

_"Birdy?" _

_Katherine froze. A green robotic bird wiggled free from Kira's shirt. _The _bird. She remembered clearly the day she completed it. Birdy hopped to Kira's head. It tugged on a brown lock with its beak before regarding Katherine with its red eyes. "Birdy?" For an unemotional toy, its voice sounded quite accusing. "Birdy!?"_

_"I... I didn't know, " Katherine told the bird. "Kira... The Earth Forces--WHY would he--"_

_Another explosion roared through the factory. Time snapped back into focus, and Katherine realized the dock would be completely engulfed in seconds. "I have to complete the mission." Katherine kicked both bodies at her feet away from the cockpit entrance. _

_"BIRDY!"_

_She entered the cockpit. Birdy followed. Katherine ignored his repeated calls as she hastily booted up the mobile suit. The X-105 Strike's existing OS was beyond crude. But she could move it well enough to get out of the fire. She stood the suit up and walked it out of its transport. As an afterthought, she grabbed the edge of the other suit's transport. As it was in gear, she pushed it out of the dock._


	3. Call It Gundam

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Witchblade nor Gundam Seed.

* * *

_"The last two mobile suits just exited Heliopolis!" Penobscot, the Mobile Suit Controller for the _Vesalius_,_ _reported. "Miguel Aiman is signaling from the left one!"_

_"Miguel?" Ades repeated. "Put him on."_

_"Resistance was heavy around Morgenroete," Miguel reported. "Katherine was the only survivor. Though she managed to take out the last Earth Forces solider, secure one suit and get the other to me." _

_"I see," Le Creuset responded calmly. "You're both to be commended on the completion of a difficult mission. The cost was high, but the future cost would have been higher." _

_"The data we're mining show formidable weaponry," Zelman, the captain of the _Gamow_, cut in. "But with the original OS, no Natural could move one. At least not well enough to justify spending all my assault troops. Surely your spy could have just taken the data, or a single suit." _

_"Perhaps," Le Creuset replied. "But this grants us complete data--and may well delay the Earth Forces' development of a more effective operating system." _

_"By the time the Naturals could write a decent OS, we'd have won this war!" Zelman scoffed._

_"They might not plan to wait that long," Miguel stated, capturing everyone's attention. "Katherine identified one of the Earth soldiers she killed as a Coordinator."_

_"A traitor!?" Zelman scoffed. "How can she be sure? She's little ground experience. A few Naturals are exercise freaks and may seem more--" _

_"Kira and I attended the same military prep school on the moon," Katherine cut in harshly. The brown of drying blood covered a generous amount of her red and white flight suit._

_"Kira?" Le Creuset echoed. "Di--"_

_"Birdy!" a mechanical voice cheerfully interrupted the masked commander. Something green circled into the camera's view over Katherine's head. _

_"What the hell?" Ades found himself asking._

_"She also identified the pet robot she built for him," Miguel reported dryly as said bird landed on top of Katherine's helmet and peered at the camera._

_"It followed me into the cockpit," Katherine sounded sheepish as she tried to grab the robot. Said bird responded by flying back towards the cockpit ceiling._

_"You knew this Kira well, then," Le Creuset remarked. _

_"Yes sir," Katherine replied quietly. "We were the best of friends."_

_"I see. After you've landed, clean up and report to me," Le Creuset ordered._

* * *

_Olor grimaced as the Mobius Zero dodged his fire. The next second one of its wired gunbarrels shot up his beam rifle. He reached for the GINN sword, and shots from more barrels pelted at him. An explosive shell hit the GINN's shoulder joint. The force sheared the arm off. _

_Olor had no choice but to withdraw. Unfortunately, the Zero's pilot was determined to pursue. Olor dodged and evaded the shots until Matthew intervened. As Matt tussled with the Zero, Olor retreated to the _Vesalius _and requested an emergency landing. _

* * *

_Bodies and debris floated through a shaft in the docks. One of those bodies bumped against a bulkhead. The impact roused the man. Charles Badgerial's purple eyes opened blearily. He forced himself to full consciousness, when the dead body under him registered. The last thing he remembered, he and Neuman had parted ways after they left the captain..._

_The captain! Charles' eyes widened as they neared the floor. The explosion had come from behind. "Where's the Archangel?" He nodded at the body before he kicked off the floor. The door to the observation deck had blown completely off. An emergency bulkhead had closed over the window to the docks. Debris and a few body parts floated around. "Hello?" he called, knowing it was likely pointless. "Are there any survivors in here?"_

_A bloody captain's cap floated into his hands. "No, damn it!" he growled. "ANYONE!" he called one last time. _

_A banging sound came from a side hatch. After a minute, the panel flew in and a bright light shined into his eyes. The flashlight lowered. "Ensign Badgerial," Petty Officer Neuman called to him. "Good to see you're okay."_

* * *

_Miguel typed commands into the Aegis so a pair of technicians, Michael and Richard, could download the spec and armament data. In the adjacent slip, a sandy haired tech named Toby sat in the cockpit of Katherine's suit while another two techs analyzed its data. _

_"BIRDY!"_

_"FUCK!" _

_The bird had flown out the minute Katherine had opened her cockpit. It had spent the past several minutes leading a pair of deckhands all around the hangar. One of whom now floated away from a bulkhead while clutching his shin._

_Miguel shook his head and turned back to the keyboard. The robot was annoying, but hardly capable of doing any damage. _They should just make Katherine collect the thing after she finished her report.

_"I don't know," Michael said whimsically. Startled, Miguel realized that he had spoken that out loud. He looked up at Michael, a short man with waist-long black hair. "She may have built it, but she just killed its master. It may feel--" _

_"Feel?" Richard scoffed. Miguel groaned to himself. It was no secret that the purple haired man disliked Michael._

_Michael rolled his eyes. "Not literally feel. But children's pets _are_ programmed to mimic emotions. The algorithms are complex, but its reaction could easily be 'angry' or 'hate you'." _

_"And how do you explain it following her here?" Richard asked condescendingly. _

_Michael shrugged. "First thing it did here was go, 'I want to play with these guys, not you'. That's something my cat would pull." _

_"Play?" Richard repeated as another round of curses floated their way. "That's what you call it?" _

_"If its tone indicates simulated moods, that's what _it _thinks they're doing."_

_Richard stared at Michael. "I'm having you drug-tested." _

_"Tell me that doesn't sound cheerful to you." Michael retorted, then frowned. "Didn't sound. You think they caught it?" _

_"Maybe," Miguel replied as the bird's silence registered. _

_"Hey, anyone see the little bugger?" one of the crewman called._

_"I suppose it's moved on to hide-and-seek," Richard quipped sarcastically._

_Miguel sighed. "Whatever. Let's get back to work." _

* * *

_'Showering' in microgravity sucked. One had two choices. Bathing with traditional amounts of soap and water required a breathing mask, and the water had to be scraped off the skin at the end. Most people went with the second option, which amounted to a glorified sponge bath._

_Katherine wanted nothing more than to be back home drowning her sorrows under a long, hot shower. Currently, she floated in the middle of a shower chamber, her knees pulled up to her chin. Her arms hugged her knees, a wet cloth held loosely in one hand. A few stray water bubbles floated around from when she wet the cloth. In front of her head floated a bracelet of silver-colored metal with a round, red stone an inch in diameter._

Kira... Why?

_Katherine's eyes moved from her feet to her hands as she stretched them out in front of her. Slightly pink from her earlier scrubbing, they still felt blood-stained. Her hands balled into fists as she felt the defeated resistance of his flesh against her sword._

Her_ sword._

_Katherine glared at the bracelet in front of her. She could not see a spec of blood on it, yet she knew it was the weapon she slew enemies--and a former friend--with. The metal may have changed from looking like ancient steel to resembling sterling silver, yet the gem clearly matched the one embedded in the back of the gauntlet's hand. And while such a transformation sounded crazy, so did a gauntlet growing a blade. _

What the hell's going on?

_A clock chimed out in the locker room, drawing Katherine's attention. _Better hurry up, _she thought. _Shouldn't keep Commander Le Creuset waiting too long...

_Katherine reached out to seize the bracelet. The minute a finger brushed the red gem, visions assailed her. _

_Battles. Hundreds, no, thousands of slices in time from every era of human history. Each gave way to the next after a split-second's viewing. The scenes ranged from one-on-one bouts to the clash of armies, but they all featured a woman wielding a weapon with a distinctive red stone. _

"Katherine..." _a woman's voice called, echoing from nowhere. _

_"Birdy?" _

_Katherine blinked. She floated in front of her locker, fully cleaned, lotioned and dressed in her uniform--black trimmed red coat and trousers with white combat boots. The bracelet hid under the black cuff of her right arm. Birdy's call had come from behind her. _

_Katherine turned to find the robot perched on the floor a few feet away. Next to it, stood a teenaged boy. The young man had vibrant purple eyes and messy brown hair. He wore pale green pants and a black shirt. Red buckles decorated the outfit. "Kira!" Katherine breathed._

"Hello, Katherine," _Kira smiled. _"It's been a while."

* * *

_"So, is it over or not?" Miriallia asked. She and the others had stopped running for cover when the mobile suits took off. They had not heard or seen any signs of battle since then. _

_"They could still be fighting outside," Sai replied. While the alarms no longer blared, Heliopolis had not sounded an all-clear. _

_"Should we go to the next district, then?" a girl with black braids in white jeans and a green hooded sweatshirt asked._

_"I don't know," Tolle answered. "P--" _

_An explosion ripped through the asteroid side of the colony. The four friends scrambled for cover as an enormous shadow emerged from the hole..._

* * *

In the space around the colony Heliopolius, battle raged dangerously close. A GINN shot down a Mobius unit only a couple meters away. Debris hit the side of the rotating cylinder.

Inside the colony, pandemonium reigned. Away from the battles, speculation ran rampant as people tried to get answers. The colony-wide PA system quit blaring its general seek-shelter alarm. "A level eight evacuation order," a voice announced in its stead, "has been issued for all of Heliopolis. All residents are to make their way to the closest shelter at once."

Residents in areas with fighting found those instructions easier said than done. Not only did they have to race away from gunfire and explosions, but the ongoing battle had damaged or destroyed the paths to the nearest shelters.

And in some cases, the shelters themselves.

Thus, Kira's four friends raced around the ruins of the factory district, desperately in search of shelter. Several businessmen, mine workers, and even a small family milled through the area Tolle led them to--all racing from different directions. As the four friends realized this, they slowed. An explosion engulfed the Morgenroete complex, drawing their attention. Everyone stood and watched as a pair of new mobile suits jumped out of the flames.

Instead of the insect-like appearance of the GINNs, these gray suits appeared to have been modeled after ancient samurai armor--well their helmets, at least. Tolle could only stare in awe as some astute fellow cried: "What!? There's more?"

* * *

One of the Earth Forces' suits landed near Miguel Aiman's GINN. Miguel smiled and radioed the senior of the two pilots sent. "Katherine!"

"Rusty failed."

Miguel's eyes widened at Katherine's blunt reply. "What?" the blond pilot asked.

Katherine continued her report: "An Earth Forces officer has boarded the other machine."

The other machine landed several meters away, and walked unsteadily.

* * *

Inside that other suit, Lieutenant Ramius sat in the pilot's seat. Behind her chair, Kira perched precariously as the woman brought up display feed from various cameras. "What?" the brunette leaned forward as he caught sight of who scrambled away from the suit's descending foot. "Sai! Tolle! Karrie!"

* * *

Miguel aimed his beam rifle at the uncaptured mobile suit. It evaded with clumsy moves. Miguel stowed the beam weapon and pulled the GINN's sword. "Okay, I'll capture that machine! You make sure you get yours back to the ship!"

Katherine opened her mouth to say something. Then she frowned and looked to the side. _It can't be Kira! _she thought. _There's no way he would've been there. And even with this shit OS, a Coordinator could do a better job moving that thing. _She unfolded the cockpit's keyboard from the right wall and went in to rebuild the operating system for the acquired G-weapon. Though as she looked at the screen saw the same letters from start-up across the top, she had to wonder why the Earth Forces hadn't opted to simply call the things GUNDAMs.

As she worked, she observed the GINN gaining on its slow-moving opponent. The Natural managed to leap into the air and avoid Miguel's first sword strike. But as the Earth suit toppled on landing, Miguel raced forward and leaped into the air. The Earth Suit suddenly turned black with a silver torso and trim. Miguel descended over the suit, slicing his blade--

The blade impacted the black arms of the machine. The GINN sword sparked against the enemy's arms, but caused no damage. "Damn it!" Miguel cursed. "What the hell's that armor?"

Katherine looked up from the Aegis' armament list. "They're equipped with system called Phase Shift armor. Once activated, the GINN saber is useless." She activated her own Phase Shift. The suit turned sapphire blue with gray and yellow trim. "The Aegis identifies that suit as the X-105 Strike. It doesn't have much else on it."

A pair of missiles came flying at them. Katherine activated the Aegis' Igelstellungs and fired several of the 75 millimeter shells from either side of the Aegis' head. They took out the missiles, and then the tank that launched them.

"Get out of here, now!" Miguel ordered. "Remember the mission!"

Kira's thirteen year-old face flashed through her mind. _It's not him! _Katherine thought furiously. She lifted off from the ground and flew towards the harbor.

* * *

Miguel watched her go with a frown. _What's gotten into her? She can't be _that_ shaken up over Rusty. Can she? _He filed that thought away for later and flew straight at the Strike. Shells shot from the sides of its head. The shots missed pathetically. Miguel laughed. "You've got some nerve! Thinking Naturals belong in Mobile Suits!" He swung his blade again. The Strike dodged.

Barely.

"And your fancy armor can't save you, if you can't even move!" Miguel swung the sword again. And again. All he needed to do was pin the other suit down and find a weakness. The sword impacted the other suit's chest. Sparks flew off the Strike's chest and the hapless Earth suit toppled into a building. Sparks also formed from debris impacts.

The Strike took a few steps back. Miguel drew his saber back as he kept pace with the suit. He thrust the point at the bottom of Strike's cockpit. Armor or no, there had to be a seam there. Even if the pilot survived, the suit should be disabled, and Miguel could haul it back to the _Vesalius_.

Suddenly, the Strike stopped backing up. Instead it fell to its knees. Miguel's thrust slid over its shoulder. Before Miguel could react, it rose to its feet again. It dashed toward the GINN and knocked it back.

Miguel cursed and struggled the GINN to its feet. He rushed forward again, only to be hit perfectly by the shells coming from the side of the Strike's head. Miguel swung his sword, and the Strike punched the GINN's head. Miguel fell back into a building.

"What the hell?" Miguel stared at his monitor. The Strike's last few moves were almost as if it had a different pilot...

Miguel switched to his beam rifle and shot at the Strike. The Strike dodged and lifted into the air. Miguel pursued. They landed in an area with fewer buildings. The Strike pulled two knives out of its hips. Miguel fired repeatedly. The Strike wove back and forth as it raced towards Miguel. All Miguel's shots missed, and before he could react, the Strike planted a knife in each of the GINN's shoulders.

A quick check of his instruments confirmed that Miguel had lost control of the suit. "DAMN!" Miguel activated the self-destruct sequence as he unbuckled from his seat. Before he jetted out of the hatch, Miguel ejected the disc that would have all the fight data recorded.

It was slight consolation that the Strike failed to move before the GINN exploded. The Strike stood too far away to be damaged, but, with luck, the pilot got shaken around. Naturals did concuss easily, affect all.

* * *

The space battle progressed in ZAFT's favor. An explosion ripped through the engine of the Earth transport. It's crew lost control, and it crashed into the side of the colony. The Zero pilot growled at the sight. "Can't we do something about this difference in firepower?" He dodged back and forth with a GINN. One of his fighter's wired gunbarrels shot the rifle out of the GINN's hand. The gunbarrels kept firing from different directions. One successfully shot the GINN's right arm off as it grabbed its sword.

The suit drew back as the Zero pursued.

* * *

"Olor's suit's heavily damaged!" Penobscot reported to the rest of the bridge. "Emergency landing! Fire crews to B-deck!"

"Olor's been hit?" Ades asked. "In simple battle like this?"

"It appears we have one annoying fly buzzing around," Le Creuset remarked mildly as he focused on a faint tickling in the back of his mind.

Before Ades could say anything, another report came in: "Emergency laser beacon detected from Miguel Aiman!"

"If that weapon works well enough to take out Miguel's suit, it's all the more reason not to leave the last one in their hands," Le Creuset said as he floated out of his chair. "Prep my CGUE!" he ordered. "I'm headed out!"

Only a few minutes later, Le Creuset barreled towards the Mobius Zero, having not even spared the time to change into a flight suit. The Zero turned to intercept his suit before the Earth armor's sensors would have detected it.

The move, while not expected, did not surprise the ZAFT commander either. "You sense me, as I sense you?" Le Creuset mused aloud. "Some unfortunate karma. Wouldn't you say, Mu La Flaga?"

* * *

Bodies and debris floated through a shaft in the docks. One of those bodies bumped against a bulkhead. The impact roused the man. Charles Baderial's purple eyes opened blearily. He forced himself to full consciousness, when the dead body under him registered. The last he remembered, he and Neuman had parted ways after they left the captain...

* * *

Katherine typed rapidly on the Aegis' keyboard as a trio of _Vesalius_ techs downloaded every last scrap of data into a shell system. "Thanks," Richard, the lead tech, said as she finished. "Now--"

_"Recovery shuttle landing in bay two," _the intercom blared. _"All unsuited hands to pressurized areas."_

"Recovery shuttle?" one of the techs, Toby, asked. "I thought we were down to just suit deployment."

"Didn't you hear?" Michael asked. "Miguel got his suit mulched by the last of these puppies," he jerked his thumb at the Aegis.

"A Natural beat _Miguel_? No way!" Toby protested.

Katherine frowned and stared at the console. _Kira?_

"How could a Natural even operate the thing?" Toby asked. "The original OS was crap."

"They'd have had time to get used to it, and their armaments are impressive," Michael observed.

Katherine bit her lip. _That sounds possible, but..._

"I suppose," Richard responded. "Anyway, we've got data to analyze."

* * *

Rau Le Creuset's CGUE hid behind a piece of support scaffolding as La Flaga's Zero approached the colony shell, the pilot doubtlessly hunting him. Le Creuset readied his suit's beam weapon. The Earth Alliance ace was a kill he looked forward to--a good mark in his record, and one less piece of Al Da Flaga to worry about.

The Zero passed behind him, and Le Creuset moved to snipe him. Unfortunately, Da Flaga's spawn spotted him at the last moment. The Zero accelerated away from the blasts, then turned on the CGUE, deploying its gunbarrels. "You're always getting in my way!" Le Creuset growled. "Though I hope you at least say the same about me!"

Le Creuset turned and raced into Heliopolis' harbor.

And smiled when La Flaga took the bait and followed.

* * *

Murrue Ramius groggily opened her eyes. She looked straight into the face of a teenage girl with auburn hair and turquoise eyes. "Glad to see you're awake," the girl smiled. "Hey Kira!"

The kid who had wrested control of the Strike walked over to Murrue's left as she tried to sit up. "You're better off laying still for now," he said. "I--" his gaze dropped a bit. "I kind of got carried away in there. I'm sorry."

From what Murrue could remember, the boy turned the fight around. She was not overly inclined to rebuke his actions. Still, she could not overlook an unknown gaining such familiarity with a G-weapon. Especially who could rewrite the OS in the heat of battle.

The girl from earlier brought a bottle over to her. "Would you like some water?"

"Thank you."

As the teens helped Murrue up to drink, she saw that they had laid her on a backless bench underneath an open tent. She guzzled the entire bottle. As she finished, a boy's voice called: "This so-called GUNDAM's amazing!"

"Does it move or not?" a girl asked.

Alarmed, Murrue turned to the side. The deactivated Strike crouched on one knee with a hand on each leg. Two more teens poked about the Strike's cockpit. "Quit playing around up there!" a fifth teen, a boy with light brown hair and glasses, called up from the ground.

The two ignored him.

Murrue grimaced as she realized how out of control the situation had gotten. Fortunately, the water had helped her recover.

And she still had her pistol.

* * *

Taking the fight into the harbor proved as advantageous as Le Creuset expected. The combined space limited the ways La Flaga could duck. Still, the bastard refused to die.

La Flaga dodged each and every blast Le Creuset fired at him, weaving nimbly along the maze-like tunnel. The two fighters flew on opposite sides of a docking wall. Le Creuset slowed his speed. "I'd be delighted if you disappeared, Mu," he mused. "Right about NOW!" Le Creuset round the wall's other side and shot La Flaga's gunbarrels up, but the bastard successfully ejected them before they blew.

Le Creuset closed in on Mu's tail.

* * *

"GET AWAY FROM THAT MACHINE!" Murrue ordered as she pulled her gun and fired a warning shot above the G-weapon's cockpit. The two teens flinched, the girl looking ready to piss herself.

As Murrue advanced towards the Strike, Kira came after her. "What do you think you're doing? Please! They helped carry you out!"

Murrue turned the gun on him. "I am grateful. But that thing is a top military secret. I can't just let anyone fiddle with it."

"Give me a break," the brown haired boy from the cockpit grumbled. "You had Kira driving it a moment ago."

She turned the gun back at him. "Everyone over there," she ordered, gesturing with the gun. "Your names."

"Sai Argyle," answered the boy with glasses.

The black haired girl on Argyle's right spoke next. "I'm Karrie Buskirk," her voice quavered.

"Tolle Koenig," the brown haired boy on Argyle's left spoke curtly.

The girl in the orange dress stood to Koenig's left. She held the right arm of the Kira kid. "I am Miriallia Haw."

The purple-eyed boy still glared. For a moment, Murrue thought he would refuse to answer. "Kira. Yamato."

"And I am Murrue Ramius, a lieutenant with the Earth Alliance forces."

"Earth Alliance!" Koenig exclaimed.

"But we're neutral!" Buskirk whined.

Murrue sighed. _Civilians._ Still, once she gave the kids a dose of reality, they should prove useful.

* * *

"Aside from you," Neuman reported as they floated through the _Archangel_, "the only survivors appear to be the few of us onboard the ship during the explosion. But most of them are factory workers."

"And our current status?" Charles Badgerial asked as they reached the bridge. "What of the ZAFT vessels?"

"Unknown. We've had our hands full verifying what happened here."

Charles pulled up a display grid. He gave an impressed whistle. "The _Archangel's_ tough. This wasn't near enough to sink _her_."

"But all the debris out there's sealed off the harbor," Neuman informed him. "We're trapped."

Charles pulled up the communications grid. "The airwaves are still being jammed. But... This was a diversion? Then ZAFT must be after Morgenreote!"

Neuman's brown eyes widened.

"Damn it!" Charles cursed. "We need to know what's happened out there!"

As if on cue, the bridge received a garbled transmission. The two on the bridge could not make out the full content, but it clearly came from the X-105 Strike. "We have to launch!" Charles proclaimed.

Neuman stared at him. "That's impossible with our numbers!"

"Morgenroete could still be under attack!" Charles retorted. "This ship is supposed have more automation than any existing warship! It's time to test that!"

The bridge doors opened, and three more soldiers floated into the bridge.

* * *

One of Mu's gunbarrels had survived Le Creuset's shots. La Flaga left it deployed. It went ahead of his Zero, shooting at Le Creuset's CGUE. Le Creuset dodged the annoyance and crushed it with a foot. He then turned his attention to the big fly.

Da Flaga's bastard dodged Le Creuset's shots. Le Creuset dodged his. They kept this up until a stray shot blew a hole in the harbor's side. Le Creuset smiled, and dove into the colony proper. Mu stuck to his tail.

Le Creuset scanned the area as he flew along. He shortly detected a crouched mobile suit; behind it sat an equipment truck. Several people appeared to be loading equipment onto the suit. "So," Le Creuset mused, "that's it."

He ducked and flew over it as Mu pursued. With its cockpit open and the surrounding personnel acting panicked, Le Creuset dismissed the thing as an immediate threat. Zachary and the others _had _reported less than fully charged batteries, after all. As Le Creuset flew away, Mu chased after him. Le Creuset looped around and bore down from behind the Zero. As the Zero's main gun pivoted around, Le Creuset swung the CGUE's sword.

With Mu neutralized, Le Creuset swooped down on the last suit. "I'll take you down now, while I have the chance!"

The dull gray suit suddenly turned black with silver trim and stood, holding a large green rifle.

An explosion tore through some trees lining the barrier to the asteroid's interior. Through the hole emerged a red and white warship.


	4. Shattered Ground

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own.

* * *

The newly emerged warship drew the attention of the combating Mu La Flaga and Rau Le Creuset, as well the group around the freshly equipped Strike. "It's the _Archangel_!" Lieutenant Ramius exclaimed in relief.

* * *

"We broke into the colony's interior," Neuman reported from the pilot's seat. "Morgenroete's been destroyed. The Strike's activated--No! It's in combat."

"Wonderful," Ensign Charles Badgerial grumbled from the command seat. He clenched his fists as he unconsciously leaned closer to the monitor. _What else could go wrong?_

As if summoned by his thoughts, a white ZAFT CGUE flew straight for the bridge, aiming its giant rifle.

"Evade!" Charles ordered. "Starboard!"

* * *

The Earth Forces ship rolled away, as Le Creuset emptied his rifle's clip. He ejected the clip and swooped down towards the remaining G-weapon. The Earth Forces' mobile suit was black with silver trim and a blue torso. Green weaponry was mounted on its back.

"Phase Shift?" Le Creuset asked, remembering the initial reports of mined data. "Then let's see about this."

He aimed and fired. Several people on the ground scrambled for cover as the Strike knelt in front of them. The shells bounced off the Strike's body. "Not even enhanced APSV harms it?" Le Creuset mused.

* * *

"Ready stern missile tubes seven through ten!" Charles Badgerial ordered. "Target enemy mobile suit. Laser designator! _Do not _hit the shaft or ground. That's an order!

"FIRE!"

The ZAFT suit dodged the four missiles, withdrawing up to the central shaft and zigzagging around it. All four missiles impacted the shaft and exploded, causing damage.

* * *

On the ground, Murrue Ramius saw the Strike's Agni aiming towards the enemy fighter. Alarmed, she cried out, "Wait! That's too--" The powerful beam weapon fired. The white suit tried to dodge, but the blast took it arm off.

And continued on, blowing a hole several meters wide in the side of the colony.

* * *

Inside the Strike, Kira's jaw dropped as he stared at the damage he inflicted on his home.

* * *

Le Creuset studied his CGUE's readings on the blast, as he adjusted his OS to compensate for the damage. "How is that possible?" he wondered as he retreated through the blast-hole. "A mobile suit with that much firepower?"

* * *

Onboard the _Vesalius_, Katherine sat in the Aegis' cockpit. She typed in lines of code as she rebuilt the system to ZAFT specs. With her ZAFT training and programming skills, Katherine could do this job in her sleep.

Which was just as well, since her mind kept switching channels to her past with Kira. In the middle of Kira awkwardly presenting her with a set of cat clips, Katherine suddenly heard an alarm beep. "WHAT THE HELL!?" Michael exclaimed.

"I'm sorry," Katherine laughed nervously. "I started working on yours too by mistake."

"That's all right," Richard responded. "We're finished the external inspection and recharging. You?"

"Yeah, I'm done as well." _Okay, Katherine, _she told herself. _Time to focus. This isn't doing anyone any good. _She folded the system's keyboard to the side. "How did they ever manage using that OS?" she muttered quietly…

_Kira smiled as he accepted her goodbye gift, Birdy hopping into his hands..._

Alarms suddenly blared through the bay. "Commander Le Creuset is returning. Damage sustained from a direct hit. Firefighting and rescue crews to B deck!"

Katherine moved to the edge of her cockpit and watched the commander's CGUE fly into the bay. Several elastic cables caught the mobile suit and slowed its inertia before it could crash into the far bulkhead. "His suit lost an arm!" Toby remarked.

_That's impossible, _Katherine thought, even as her green eyes stared at the damaged unit.

"Begin cooling armor!" one of the emergency crew ordered. Four streams of compressed air blew onto the suit.

Katherine looked away. _But if that _was _Kira..._

* * *

Inside Heliopolis, the _Archangel _ had landed in an empty field. A panel in the ship's right leg had opened, allowing the Strike to board. Kira did so, with Lieutenant Ramius and his friends in the suit's hands. He knelt the Strike down, allowing his passengers to climb off.

Several uniformed people rushed over to them. "Lieutenant Ramius!" the man at the front called.

"Ensign Badgerial," the lieutenant replied as she exchanged salutes with the man.

"I'm glad you're safe."

"You as well," Lieutenant Ramius replied as Kira exited the cockpit. "I'm glad you protected the _Archangel_."

As Kira rode the manlift down, the ship's crew focused their attention on him. "Come on!" he heard a man in orange coveralls say. "That kid doesn't look like he's learned to shave yet!"

As Kira set foot on the floor, his friends rushed over to him. He quickly assured them that he was okay. Then the group turned their attention to the Earth Forces.

"Lieutenant Ramius, what's going on?" Badgerial asked.

Before she could reply, a new voice piped up: "Wow! What a ship!" A blond man in a gray and magenta Earth Forces' flight suit strode in. "Lieutenant Mu La Flaga of the Seventh Orbital Fleet, at your service." The man saluted Lieutenant Ramius and the others.

The ship's personnel returned the salute. "Lieutenant Murrue Ramius of Sector Two, Fifth Special Division."

"Ensign Charles Badgerial, of the same."

"May I ask who's in command around here?" La Flaga queried. "I'd like permission to come aboard."

Ensign Badgerial looked grave. "The captain and senior staff perished in the battle. I believe Lieutenant Ramius is now in command."

Miss Murrue gasped. "What? The captain?"

"Only about a dozen of us were left," Badgerial continued. "Mostly non-commissioned officers."

"Damn. What a disaster. In any case, please grant me permission, Lieutenant Ramius. The ship I was assigned to got shot down."

"Oh, of course," Lieutenant Ramius replied. "Permission granted."

"And who's that?" La Flaga asked, focusing the soldiers' attention back on Kira and his friends. Tolle clamped a hand on Kira's shoulder.

"They're teenage civilians," she responded, "who were in the factory district during the attack. The one in the black shirt's Kira Yamato. He wandered into the firefight over the Aegis and Strike. For his safety, I took him onboard the G-weapon. He then took control and successfully defeated a GINN."

As some of the ship's crew muttered in disbelief, La Flaga walked over to Kira. "You... You're a Coordinator, aren't you?"

A lump filled Kira's throat at as his friends exclaimed in surprise. He was not exactly hiding, but the majority of the Alliance's enemies were Coordinators. Over the pilot's shoulders, Lieutenant Ramius' eyes narrowed. _It'd be worse if I tried to lie,_ he thought as he swallowed. "Yes."

Immediately, a handful of rifles pointed straight at him. To his right, he heard Tolle growl.

* * *

"Thank you for bringing this back, Miguel," Le Creuset commented smoothly as the playback of his GINN's flight data on the fight against the Strike ended. The masked commander floated by the tactical table at the back of the bridge. The large display screen was to Le Creuset's left. Ades stood next to him with Miguel on Ades' right. Continuing around the table, Katherine came next, followed by Olor and then Matthew. The redcoat pilot frowned as she continued to stare at the screen. Behind his mask, Le Creuset raised an eyebrow. Katherine typically did not get distracted. "I'd have been quite the joke otherwise," Le Creuset continued, making sure to inject the right amount of humor into his tone, "for allowing my suit to lose an arm to an Earth Forces' model. No one would have believed it possible.

"You're all aware of the state of the original OS?" Le Creuset asked. Ades, Olor, Miguel and Matthew all nodded, while Katherine's frown deepened. _Interesting, _Le Creuset noted. "With that in mind, I have no idea why this suit moved so well." Katherine's green eyes dropped down before she nodded. _Oh? _Very _interesting. _"But it's clear we can't afford to leave the suit in their hands. If we can't capture it, we must destroy it, along with that new warship. Don't underestimate it!"

"Sir!" The four pilots sharply returned Le Creuset's salute.

"Okay, listen up!" Ades ordered sharply. "Miguel! Olor! Matthew! Prepare to launch at once! We've been authorized to use the type D weaponry. Make sure to put and end to this!"

"Yes, sir!" The three promptly left the bridge.

Katherine approached Ades. "Sir, please allow me to sortie as well."

That caught Le Creuset's interest. "You no mobile suit," he pointed out. "Besides you've all ready completed a difficult mission by capturing one of those units."

"But--"

"Let the others go this time, Katherine," Ades instructed. "They have more to prove, given the humiliation they suffered in the last round."

Katherine seemed to deflate. "Yes, sir," she mumbled before floating off the bridge. Le Creuset watched her go before turning to Ades to discuss the Aegis' specs.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Tolle demanded. He had jumped in front of Kira and now stood with his arms held out to block anyone walking past. "SO WHAT IF HE'S A COORDINATOR! HE'S NOT AN ENEMY!"

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Miriallia shouted from Tolle's side. Stunned, Kira realized that his friends had formed a half circle between him and the Earth Forces. "KIRA FOUGHT TO PROTECT US!"

"Guys..." Kira trailed off, unsure what to say.

Sai had no such issues. "Stand back and leave this one to us!" he told Kira.

"That's what friends are for," Karrie added as she stared wide-eyed at the guns. She swallowed hard and straightened her shoulders. "'Sides, we owe you one."

"Lower your rifles!" Lieutenant Ramius ordered as she too moved into the riflemen's way.

Ensign Badgerial followed her. The burly man muttered something to the lieutenant that Kira could not hear.

"It's obvious if you think about it," the lieutenant replied. "Heliopolis is neutral territory. It's within reason that some Coordinators would come here to avoid the war. Am I wrong Kira?"

"Not entirely," Kira replied. "I lived here before the war. But as a first-generation Coordinator, my family's currently as unwelcome in the PLANTs as the Atlantic Federation."

"First-generation?" a brown-haired soldier in white muttered to a dark skinned, purple-haired man in orange coveralls. "They still make those?"

"So your parents are Naturals," La Flaga commented. He turned towards the other Earth soldiers. "My apologies. I didn't mean to create a fuss. Just curious."

"Lieutenant La Flaga?" Ramius asked.

"I was an escort for the intended pilots. I observed a fair number of simulations on the trip here. They struggled just to get the things to move."

"I'm not surprised," Lieutenant Ramius replied. "The OS was incomplete until Kira took over."

"The kid keeps getting more impressive," La Flaga commented. "What about the G pilots? I don't see any of them."

"The bombs detonated near the control booth," Charles Badgerial answered, "when the captain was welcoming them. So they also--"

"Yes," La Flaga looked down. "I see." He began walking into the ship.

"What do we do now?" Badgerial asked.

La Flaga stopped and turned. "What do we do? I've been shot down, and Le Creuset's team is waiting outside the colony." Several soldiers' eyes widened at the name Le Creuset. "I suggest we plan." La Flaga resumed his walk into the ship.

Lieutenant Ramius turned to the pair of men with the brown and purple hair, who were still muttering about Kira. "Murdoch, inspect the Strike and Moebius. Have your men make the necessary repairs. And send a team to retrieve all parts and equipment they can find from the remains of Morgenroete--salvage all food, water and energy stores you find as well. Pal, escort our guests to some of the empty quarters, then help the salvage crews."

The brown haired man blinked in surprise. "They're staying?"

"At least until I determine the status of the shelters." The woman walked off, taking Badgerial with her.

"Status?" Karrie asked.

"They may be locked down given the hole the colony's wall," Sai replied.

Kira winced at the reminder of what he did to their home.

* * *

Katherine floated in front her open locker. She held the top of the door as she stared at the clean pressure suit inside. In front of her eyes, bloodstains grew on the suit. Flashes of battle swarmed in front of her. The images seemed to come from all points in time, but the image of Kira's skewered body at her feet stuck out.

_IT WASN'T HIM! _She thought stubbornly, tightening her grip on the locker door until her knuckles turned white. _It couldn't be him. And I'll prove it. _

_"Birdy!" _Katherine blinked as she remembered Birdy's cry. She whirled and stared at an empty spot on the floor.

_"Let him fight for them." _

Katherine whirled back to her locker. She saw no one, but she still knew the voice that whispered in her ear.

It was her own.

* * *

"D equipment," Isaac observed as he watched the outfitting of the GINN force from the pilots' observation lounge. His twin sat on the opposite side of the large sofa. Dearka had sat between them, but floated up the last time the _Vesalius _adjusted position and never bothered to return. Nicole hovered right in front of the windows over the suit bay.

Dearka gave a low whistle. "Le Creuset doesn't believe in under preparing. That's enough to take out a small fortress."

"They could wind up destroying the colony with that," Nicole observed.

"They deserve whatever they get," Zachary interrupted harshly. Given Orb's duplicity, Isaac was inclined to agree. But damaging the colony could cause serious political fallout.

Nicole's eyes darkened. "Those in charge, yes. But there are children in the colony."

"The little ones are all safely in the shelters by now," Isaac told her. "And it's not like Miguel and the others would deliberately target the colony."

"I know," Nicole answered. "But I have a bad feeling."

Dearka scoffed.

* * *

On the bridge of the _Archangel_, Murrue Ramius got off the phone with Heliopolis Control. "Fortunately, the colony's almost a hundred percent evacuated. The last incident upped the hazard level to nine."

"So the shelters are locked down," La Flaga commented. "What do we do with those kids then?"

"Lieutenant Ramius detained them for the secrets they'd seen," Charles Badgerial sternly reminded him. "We couldn't exactly release them anyway."

"The enemy just stole four copies of those secrets," La Flaga countered. "You can't honestly find that worth dragging them though the heavy fighting we'll encounter when we leave."

Charles glared at him. "In the absence of our captain, protocol dictates that we restrain them until we can contact the eighth fleet for a determination."

"Or your lieutenant can make a decision herself!"

Charles clenched his fists. "That'd be presumptuous--"

"Enough," Ramius cut in. "We can't just leave the kids in a structurally unsound colony with no hope of shelter. Besides, I believe we'll need to rely on the Strike's power to make our escape."

La Flaga frowned. "Do you think the kid'll go for that?"

"I'll convince him," Ramius replied.

_The kid? They don't mean... _"Can't you fly it, Lieutenant?" Charles asked.

"Not with the OS the kid wrote," La Flaga replied. "A regular human couldn't possibly grasp it anymore."

"Then make him change it back!" Charles retorted. "I mean... How bad's the original OS?"

"Bad," Ramius answered. "It could barely be moved."

Charles grimaced at that. "But to let a civilian--a Coordinator child at that--drive it!"

Lieutenant Ramius locked eyes with Charles. "Do you think we can make our escape without it?"

It was hard to argue with that logic.

* * *

Olor's GINN launched from the _Vesalius_. Miguel stepped onto the catapult to follow him. Within seconds, Miguel had launched and Richard gave the order to close the hatch. As he spoke, the captured Aegis activated and walked to the catapult. Richard had to scramble out of its way, nearly tearing his pressure suit in the process. "Is that going out, too?" he demanded.

"Nobody told me," Toby replied as the captured suit launched.

* * *

"WHAT!?" On the _Vesalius' _bridge, Fredrick Ades stared at Penobscot in shock. "Katherine Zala launched in a captured suit? Call her back at once!"

"Let her go," Le Creuset smoothly countermanded Ades' order. The team commander floated in the middle of the bridge, a couple of meters in front of where Ades sat in the captain's chair.

"What?" Ades sometimes chafed under the authority of the white-uniformed commander. And he felt the masked man tended to favor the children of Supreme Councilors, but this was unusual, even for him.

"We've mined all the secrets those suits have to give," Le Creuset replied. "And this may prove… interesting. One Earth Forces suit against another."

Le Creuset turned and floated toward the back of the bridge. He stopped beside Ades' chair. "But do have her report to me when she returns. Such... unusual behavior needs to be addressed." Le Creuset continued out of the bridge.

* * *

As the Aegis caught up to the three GINNs, Miguel radioed it for an explanation. The face that appeared on the video monitor surprised him. "Katherine? What are you thinking?" While spirited, the blue-haired elite normally kept a level head. He would have expected a stunt like this from the more impulsive Zachary Jule or Dearka Elthman before Katherine Zala.

"I'm joining the strike force," Katherine replied levelly.

"You didn't receive orders for this mission," Matthew cut in snidely.

"I didn't receive any orders to return."

"Katherine..." Miguel scolded.

Katherine closed her eyes and sighed. "I need to come along. When I went for the Strike--after everyone else died--"

_Oh great, Survivor's Guilt, _Miguel thought as Katherine continued.

"I thought I--"

"Very well," Miguel sighed.

"Huh?" Katherine's puzzlement was echoed by Olor and Matthew.

"If you want payback that badly, I won't stand in your way. And I like the thought of Naturals getting sunk by their own weapon."

"Right." Katherine looked down and to the side. She bit her lip before looking back up. "Miguel--"

"Don't thank me," Miguel cut her off. "I'm not helping you out when you have to face Ades and Le Creuset. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Good." _I just hope this helps whatever's going through her head._

* * *

In the hangar bay, automatic equipment mounted a new weapons pack onto the Strike. Kira sat in the Strike's cockpit and observed the weapon specs. "Sword Striker?" he murmured, relieved not to have the Launcher pack. The hole he punched through his home with the Agni stayed fresh in his mind. "That should prevent further damage."

* * *

"Our top priority is to escape Heliopolis," Lieutenant Ramius instructed as the _Archangel_ lifted off. "Be careful not to damage the colony!"

Tonomura grumbled, "That's impossible!" Something showed on his screen. "Mobile suit approaching through breach in wall! It's a GINN!"

"What are they thinking?" Mu exclaimed as the data displayed on his screen. "It's got heavy artillery meant for destroying bases! Are they using that _here_?" An explosion shook the colony and answered his question. As the smoke cleared, two more GINNs entered through the new hole. "Separate group approaching from the Tannenbaum district!" he reported.

"Send out the Strike!" Badgerial ordered.

A blue suit flew through the Tannenbaum hole. Tonomura's eyes widened as he identified it. "One's the X-303 Aegis!"

"They're all ready sending it into battle?" Lieutenant Ramius sounded stunned.

To Mu's annoyance, she was not the only one distracted by its appearance. "It's theirs now!" he snapped. "You want it to sink us?"

"Prepare to fire Korinthos!" Badgerial ordered.

"Phase Shift armor withstands projectiles!" Lieutenant Ramius countered. "Link laser to main cannons! Fire at will!"

* * *

"Olor! Matthew! You take the ship!" Miguel ordered as he angled to intercept the Strike. "Katherine, you're with me!" The Aegis followed without a word. "Show us that spirit that made you defy orders!"

"Sure," Katherine replied flatly.

Miguel sighed. _I sure hope our victory snaps her out of it._

* * *

Inside the _Archangel_, Sai, Tolle, Karrie and Miriallia joined other civilians--mainly Morgenroete employees who were onboard during the attack, but a few of those locked out of the shelters had chanced tagging along on a battleship over remaining in an unsound colony--inside a crew lounge. The monitor in the middle of room showed feed of the battle. Currently, the Strike and a GINN danced around each in the air. The Strike dodged a green energy blast from the GINN. The beam hit one of the support cables that tethered the colony walls to the central shaft. A hole melted through the edge of the cable. Weakened by the heat, the remaining cable pulled apart. The students watched speechless as the cable, as thick as a two-story building's height, fell to the ground below.

* * *

Inside his cockpit, Miguel adjusted his aim and fired again. The Strike barely dodged, and the beam destroyed a building on the ground. Miguel fired again. The Strike only moved an arm before the beam impacted the shield on it. Miguel grinned in triumph. "Did I get him?"

As the glare dissipated, Miguel spotted the Strike racing at him, sword poised overhead. Miguel backed away as the sword slashed through the air where he had been. He fired his beam weapon as he dodged.

* * *

The _Archangel _crew had their hands full with the other two GINNs. A flurry of missiles from one slammed into one of the ship's gun turrets. "Weapons bank four is hit! Sealing emergency bulkheads!"

The GINN released another flurry of missiles while the second GINN fired all four of its huge missiles at once. "Intercept them!" Charles ordered.

"No time!" someone protested.

"Okay, give me manual targeting control," La Flaga demanded. Charles did just that, hoping the man knew what he was talking about. Computers generally targeted faster than people could, but Moebius Zeroes required a rare spatial awareness to operate.

"Starboard!" Lieutenant Ramius ordered. "Forty degrees! Full speed!"

The _Archangel _flew away from the smaller missiles. La Flaga successfully shot down the large ones.

The smaller missiles rained down on the colony walls.

* * *

The shelter shook again. A long tube, with seats backed against each wall, the shelter had a narrow central corridor. In the last seat that had been filled, a blonde with amber eyes gritted her teeth. They had waited in there for hours. Once the tremors of battle had ceased, they received only a brief, automated message that the shelter was in lockdown until repairs could be completed. No word had come since, and now--

"Has another battle started up?" the black haired man sitting across from her asked.

_Duh, _the girl thought. She hated sitting around not knowing _exactly _was happening. Which side was winning or the damage to Helio--

"Alert level has reached ten," the automated voice spilled over the intercom. "This shelter maybe ejected as a lifeboat. Please fasten your seatbelts."

The blonde growled and looked to the side. Ten. The damage was severe enough that even if the battle ended now, the colony may still have to be evacuated for the duration of repairs--if not abandoned and replaced. _Damn you, father._ Purple eyes and messy brown hair filled her mind. _I hope he made it to those other shelters, _she thought.

A loud explosion echoed through the shelter, as if they sat in an off-key metal drum.

* * *

The damn Natural continued to elude Miguel's shots. "Damn it!" he cursed. The guy was quick; Miguel had to admit that. "Get behind it, Katherine!" he radioed to the Aegis. The suit in question had not done much except hover. Miguel wondered what Katherine was thinking. Of course, she might not trust her new machine to only target the enemy. The Strike _did _keep bringing the battle close, and the Aegis had unfamiliar weaponry. _I'll get the full story later, _he vowed.

"Right," Katherine acknowledged and swooped down.

The Strike turned as the Aegis approached. Katherine had to continue on, but the Strike made no move to attack. In fact, it froze. Miguel as he closed and aimed at the suit's back. _And here I was beginning to respect your skill. Letting the fact that we stole your weapon shake you. _He scoffed._ Stupid Natural._

Unfortunately, the stupid Natural dodged at the last minute. The Strike pulled something from its back. A short energy blade formed as the Strike threw it, spinning so it appeared as a disc of light. Miguel dodged it and once again aimed his rifle--

"BEHIND YOU!" Katherine shouted.

Before Miguel could react or even understand her meaning, he felt something impact the legs of his suit. Alarms blared in his cockpit as the right leg fell off, the pink weapon also falling away from the suits. Miguel tried to regain control, but the black suit was on top of him. Its sword sliced through the GINN's torso.

Miguel screamed in pain as electricity arced through his cockpit. The sword may have miraculously missed him, but he knew he would never escape befo--

An explosion devoured his GINN.

* * *

Mu La Flaga targeted and fired the laser cannons as one of the GINNs flew up, away from the ship to position itself for another flyover. He took out the GINN. However, the beam continued on, grazing the central shaft. The GINN's explosion caused additional damage to the shaft.

"FUCK!" La Flaga swore as chain reaction explosions rippled along the shaft.

Murrue agreed with his sentiments as she stood and stared at the sight. "We can't afford to cause anymore damage to the colony!" she said.

"AND WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE!?" Charles Badgerial snapped. "STAND DOWN AND LET THEM SINK US!?" He opened a radio channel. "STRIKE! GET BACK HERE! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

* * *

As debris fell around them, the Aegis and Strike hovered, facing each other. Matthew's voice filled her cockpit, calling for her. Katherine kept silent as she watched the Strike. She knew she hesitated to act because she could not get the thought of Kira out of her mind. But as the other suit did not attack, she began to feel that it _was_ him. After a moment, the Strike readied its sword. She aimed the Aegis' beam rifle at the black and silver suit. The two suits rushed each other, but Katherine held her fire, waiting and watching for the Strike to make its move.

The Strike flew past her without attacking. Both suits spun around to face each other again. Katherine could not stand it anymore; she had to find for sure. She switched on an open channel. "Kira? Kira Yamato?" No response, but the other suit froze. Triumph warred with dismay. "It _is _you, Kira! Isn't it?"

"Katherine Zala?" Kira finally responded. "What are you doing here?"

"_Me_? What the hell are _you _doing inside that thing?"

* * *

The _Archangel _shot down the last of the GINNs. As it exploded, two large missiles launched off its back. They automatically locked onto the closest big structure they detected: the central axis. Their impact knocked a large segment out. The remaining shaft crumbled, releasing all support cables.

* * *

_"Compulsory evacuation now in effect,"_ the synthetic voice announced as the shelter accelerated to the left. Flay gripped the sides of her chair and forced herself to take deep breaths. Tears spilled from her closed eyes. Heliopolis, her home of the past couple years, was likely lost.

The racket and shaking over the course of the two battles had had Flay thinking that their shelter would be ejected several times over. Yet she found herself in a state of disbelief once it did happen. She wanted nothing more than to open her eyes and find herself in bed. Or perhaps the recliner in front of the telev--

_**BAM!**_

Everything lurched upward and to the left. The shelter walls reverberated, singing a discordant wail as the lights cut out.

* * *

"HELIOPOLIS IS EJECTING LIFEBOATS!"

"WHAT!?" Ades pushed himself up out of his chair at Penobscot's words. He watched the small shuttles rush away from the cylindrical structure. On their heels, bits of the colony began flying off the spinning sides. The walls themselves broke apart at the seams and moved out from their rotational plane. Within seconds, Heliopolis transformed into a cluster of debris spinning in an expanding spiral.

Ades felt the blood drain from his face. "Commander!" he breathed.

Le Creuset stayed silent, watching the scene in front of them.

Ades swallowed and offered a silent prayer that all the civilians evacuated.

* * *

As the colony walls grew further apart, so did the force of the air escaping into vacuum. With the _Archangel _buffeted about by the gale-like turbulence, the Strike and Aegis had no hope of staying in place. Kira and Katherine were ripped away from each other and thrown into cold space.

_

* * *

_

_"Should we go to the next district, then?" Karrie Buskirk asked. She felt vulnerable out in the open, and there might be room in those shelters._

_"I don't know," Tolle answered. "P--" _

_An explosion ripped through the asteroid side of the colony. The four friends scrambled for cover as an enormous shadow emerged from the hole. They crouched beside the wall of the nearest building. As the smoke and debris cleared, the shadow turned into a massive red and white warship. It glided over the four students, shedding a layer of dust as it went. The fine grit showed clearly against Karrie's black braids and white jeans. "WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!?" she wailed. "ARE THEY _TRYING _TO BRING DOWN THE COLONY!?" _

_

* * *

_

_"We broke into the colony's interior," Neuman reported from the pilot's seat. "Morgenroete's been destroyed. There's no sign of any of the G-weapons." _

_"Fuck!" Ensign Charles Badgerial cursed from the command seat. He clenched his fists as he unconsciously leaned closer to the monitor. "What about ZAFT?" _

_"No mobile suits in the area," Neuman responded. _

_"N-jammer levels are dropping," Chandra reported. "It looks like they withdrew."_

_"Wonderful," Charles growled sarcastically. "Find a spot to take us down. We'll send a team to check for survivors and the G-weapons." _

_"A Moebius Zero just entered the colony! The pilot's signaling us!" _

_"Good. Perhaps he can give us some answers." _

_

* * *

_

_The large warship matched the colony wall's rotation and glided down to land in a vacant field. Shortly afterward, an orange Mobile Armor came through the harbor and landed on top the ship._

_"That's Earth Alliance!" Sai exclaimed._

_Anger rushed through Miriallia. "All this time, they were _hiding_ in our_ _asteroid?" _

_

* * *

_

_Only two things could easily be seen in the dim room: the back of Le Creuset who stood without his mask and gloves, and the image of a man near thirty displayed on the wall in front of the ZAFT captain. "And you're sure Katherine Zala's bonded with the Witchblade?" the man in the image asked. His eye color matched this shoulder-length black hair. He wore an outfit of red and blue._

_The blonde captain nodded his head at the other man's image. "Yes. When she raised her arm into the camera's view, I saw it in bracelet form around Katherine's flight suit. And wielding it is the most likely way she got close enough to recognize that she killed her childhood friend." The blonde glanced down. The back of his right hand had a burn scar in the outline of a circle. "I remember _that _stone well. I don't think Ades, Zelman, or any of the bridge crew noticed the bracelet." _

_The black-haired man frowned. "And the other pilot?"_

_"Miguel Aiman. If he saw it, he didn't say anything during the transmission. He'd likely want to speak to her privately or bring it to my attention without an audience." _

_"Yes, the regulations about jewelry could be problematic, but I'm more worried about somebody recognizing that thing for what it is. There are other Coordinators with an interest in the esoteric," the black haired man added as Le Creuset started._

_"Of course. I've ordered Katherine to report to me as soon as she's cleaned up. I hope to get more details about the bonding then. How would you like me to proceed?" _

_"Cautiously. No matter the gifts granted by the blade, it's controlled by the bearer's will, not vice versa. Katherine is not as... antagonistic towards us as Leni Dino. With the right advice, she could prove valuable." _

_"If she discovers our true agenda, that'll change." _

_"Indeed. But we've removed such obstacles before. However," the black eyed man stared sharply at Le Creuset. "I don't want to waste the resources. Be subtle." _

_"Of course, Father." _

_The black haired man gave non-committal grunt. "You have anything else to report?"_

_"No, father." _

_"Then I'll take my leave." In a blink, Le Creuset stood in a brightly light bathroom, staring into the mirror. As a bump caused the man to float up off the floor, he grabbed his mask and gloves._

_

* * *

_

_"Kira!" Katherine breathed._

_The purple-eyed teen smiled. "Hello, Katherine. It's been a while." _

_"'It's been a while'?" Katherine repeated in disbelief. "I _killed _you, and all you can say is 'It's been a while'?" Katherine shook her head. She floated backwards and bumped against her locker. She started slowly rising. "I don't want you to be dead, so I'm seeing things, yet you still..." _

_"You aren't seeing things," Kira said calmly, walking across the locker room floor._

_"Of course I am." _

_Kira reached up and grabbed Katherine's right hand. "Some Coordinators have psychic abilities. You know that." He pulled her down to the floor. "Though your bloodline's more unique than that. Not that you'd know." _

_Katherine snorted. "But you would?" _

_"I know you're wearing the Witchblade." Kira slid her sleeve up, revealing the bracelet. "Given how it saved you from the ambush, is it so surprising it could let us interact on this level?" _

_"I..." Katherine stared at the blood-red stone. _

_"Keep it on," Kira advised. "It can give you insight that'll help you and your comrades during your suit battles. And you've all ready seen what it can do for hand-to-hand." _

_"Why?" _

_Kira's purple eyes widened. "It could save your life." _

_"No. Why were you with the Earth Forces?" _

_"Oh. I was looking for a shelter when I got caught up in the fighting over the prototypes." _

_Katherine felt the blood drain from her face. "You weren't a soldier?" _

_Kira shook his head. "I was a student at a technical college partnered with Morgenroete. I got separated from my friends when we evacuated our lab." _

_Katherine felt sick. Tears welled in her eyes. "Oh, God. Kira, I--I'm so sorry. I never--" _

_"It's okay." _

_"_OKAY_!? I _KILLED_ YOU! AND NOW YOU SAY YOU _WEREN'T EVEN AN ENEMY_!?" _

_"You were a soldier reacting to an attack in the heat of battle." Kira replied gently. "It happens. I understand that now. I understand a lot that I didn't before." _

_Katherine stared into Kira's amethyst eyes. "But..." _

_"I can't say dying doesn't suck. And there are things I wish I'd done while alive. But the dead come to terms with their passing far easier than the living."_

_"Katherine," Kira continued, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You have to accept what happened and move on. You can't afford to second-guess yourself out there."_

_Katherine nodded. On the battlefield, her--and her comrades'--survival depended on the ability to make split-second decisions. "At least there shouldn't be any more battles where you can't tell soldier from civilian." _

_Kira frowned, but kept silent._

_Katherine felt cold. "There aren't are there? I mean it wasn't a typical operation, and I'm primarily a pilot. Kira?"_

_The brunette sighed. "I don't know. The future is as unknown to me as to you." _

_"But then--" _

_"I have bad feeling about this war," Kira answered. "That doesn't change what you need to do as a soldier in it."_

_Katherine nodded. She stared at the lockers over Kira's shoulder for a moment before she lifted her arm so that her wrist--and the Witchblade--was between them. "By all rights, I should be the one dead. We were outnumbered and pinned down. If I hadn't come across this... It's unsettling to owe my life to a chance encounter. And what does it want in return?" _

_"You didn't find it by chance," Kira replied. _

_Katherine looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"_

_Kira opened his mouth as if to say something when his attention appeared to shift inward._

_"Kira?" _

_"I'm sorry," Kira replied. "All I can say is that you're part of a line of warriors spanning time. There are things you need to learn for yourself." _

_"Of course," Katherine replied drolly. _

_Kira smiled. "Talk to Siegel Clyne about your mother." _

_"Why?" Katherine snarled. "That bitch walked out years ago." _

_"Why would she do that?" Kira asked mildly. _

_"WHO CARES!?" Katherine snapped, irritated. Even after three years separation, Kira should know that her mother was a touchy subject on the best of days. After today's brutal shocks, Katherine considered it the last thing she needed._

_"You're not six anymore, Katherine," Kira stated firmly. "Perhaps _you _should." _

_

* * *

_

_"_WE_ DIDN'T ATTACK YOU!" Charles Badgerial snapped from the _Archangel's _command seat. He glared holes in the communications monitor and imagined wrapping his hands around the officious twit's neck._

_"No," said twit agreed. "You just blasted your way into the colony's interior!" _

_Charles gritted his teeth. "Morgenroete was under attack!" he ground out, fighting for patience. "We came to help!" _

_"_After _ZAFT cleared out! It's bad enough the Mainland's going to find out about your project, but the repair bills--" _

_"WHAT!?" Charles blurted. "Are you saying your government didn't authorize--"_

_"NEVER MIND THAT! JUST LEAVE THE COLONY!" _

_"We intend to. We just need to load supplies before we can journey to the Lunar base." _

_"Don't you mean plunder the remains of Morgenroete?" the man asked coldly._

_"I'm not asking for anything more than our original agreement," Charles gritted out. _

_"Our agreement didn't include colony damage or missing students!" the man spat. "You have an hour. Don't be late." He cut the transmission. _

_Charles cursed and punched the arms of his chair. He never expected such hostility from Heliopolis when ZAFT had started the battle. Instead of gratitude for help, the general response--both officially and from the civilians who had failed to find shelter--was that the _Earth Forces_ caused ZAFT's attack, then intentionally hid until it was safe to emerge. Charles snorted. _They'd be singing a different tune if ZAFT had still been in the colony._ "Just get all the water and munitions you can," he instructed Chandra. They don't have the strength to force us out, but it would be best not to overstay our welcome." _

_"To late for that, Chuck," a voice drawled behind him. Charles grimaced and turned to Lieutenant La Flaga as he strolled onto the bridge. "We overstayed our welcome the minute ZAFT attacked."_

_"Don't call me Chuck," he said more tersely than was proper to address someone who technically outranked him, but La Flaga would not recognize proper if it waltzed over and blew his ass off. "My name is Charles."_

_"My Zero'll be ready for launch before we leave," the pilot replied without any sign that he had heard Charles' request. _

_"That shouldn't be an issue. The ZAFT vessels have withdrawn. Still, it's good to know that we are prepared." _Or at least as prepared as we _can _be, _Charles brooded._

_

* * *

_

_"What is it Ades?" Le Creuset asked as he glided onto the bridge. _

_"Your spy signaled as we began pulling away from Heliopolis," Fred replied, floating over to him. They hovered next to the tactical table. "According to his report their new battleship survived and blasted its way free from the docks." _

_"Indeed?" Le Creuset mused. "It's tougher than we thought. It could prove troublesome if we left it alone. Does he say how severe the damage is?" _

_Frederick Ades handed the panel with the report to Le Creuset. "No visible damage. It landed in a vacant lot, and's apparently short on crew and supplies." _

_Le Creuset scrolled down the report. "Oh my," he sounded amused. "Heliopolis isn't very happy with them." _

_"They're not any happier with us," Fred replied sharply. "Apparently the assault knocked out a few shelters and caused some civilian causalities."_

_"That's unfortunate, but it can't be helped. Still, it won't do to leave such a powerful vessel alone..." Le Creuset scrolled through the rest of the report, then turned to table, which displayed a map of local space. "If they're low on supplies, their best bet would be Artemis. We'll swing around and wait here," he pointed at a spot between the Aube station and Artemis, just beyond detection of the colony. "And position the _Gamow, _here." He indicated a spot the same distance from Heliopolis, but en route to the moon. "If they're foolhardy enough to try for Lunar HQ, Zelman can delay them until we swing around--and move to pinch them when they head our way._

_"Have Olor and Matthew transfer to the _Gamow_. Miguel will pilot the third GINN. The D equipment and fire from our ships should be more than enough to sink it." _

_Frederick nodded in agreement._

_

* * *

_

_Caridad Yamato sighed and dialed her son's number again. She rushed to the factory district, holding her mobile phone to her ear with her right hand and dangling her high-heeled shoes from her left. Her long-strapped purse kept banging into her side. Heliopolis' phone system lost a couple relay towers in the attack and was overloaded with calls as everyone else tried to contact friends and family. A busy signal sounded in her ear. As she hit redial, Caridad mentally cursed all the other callers. She understood their concern, but many were checking on people they knew had likely been away from the fighting. She knew Kira would have been close to the heaviest of it._

_Another busy signal. Caridad tried again as she entered the factory district and turned left towards Morgenroete. The blue haired woman paused, blood draining from her face, when she caught sight of the complex. The main building still stood, but a good portion of the dockyards and one of the warehouses had been gutted by fire. Caridad could see char on all the buildings. _

_"Hi, you've reached Kira Yamato's phone," her son's cheerful voice spilled into her ear. "Leave a message, and I'll get back to you."_

_"Kira, honey!" Caridad exclaimed. "I know you're all right, but please give me a call, so I'll know you're all--" She broke off as the line went dead. Caridad sighed and ended the call. Kira's phone had gone straight to voicemail, and she could not see him leaving it off instead of trying to contact her or Haruma. She frowned at the thought of her husband. Perhaps she should alternate trying to reach her husband between calls to Kira. Kira might have contacted him. _Or he lost his phone in the evacuation. Or the system read its status wrong, _Caridad thought as she approached Morgenroete. _He's fine.

He has to be.

_"I TOLD YOU, I DON'T KNOW HIS NAME!"_

_Caridad froze as she heard her older sister's voice. She turned and found a young blonde harassing an Aube police officer. The girl had a brace around her right ankle, and stood, leaning forward onto a pair of crutches. "JUST TELL ME IF ANYONE ENTERED DISTRICT SHELTER 37 AFTER I ENTERED 29!" the teen continued as Caridad approached them. _

_The police officer stepped into Caridad's path and held out an arm. "Ma'am, I can't let you past here," he told her. The man managed to look apologetic for his words and relieved for the interruption at the same time._

_"My son's class does lab work at Morgenroete," Caridad pulled up her phone's photo album. "He texted that he would be there until this evening. Kira Yamato. I couldn't find out anything from the public boards." Caridad showed his picture to the police officer. A woman with long, raven-black hair walked by the group, a pair of rescue workers following her._

_"That's him!" the blonde exclaimed as she caught sight of Kira's face. "_He's _the one I'm looking for!"_

_Caridad turned to her, and found herself staring into Ulen Hibiki's amber eyes. "Cagalli..." Caridad breathed. The girl's eyes widened, confirming Caridad's suspicions. "You came here looking for Kira?" she asked sharply. "What did your father tell you?" _

_"Huh?" Cagalli asked._

_"WHAT DID LORD UZUMI TELL YOU ABOUT KIRA!?" Caridad demanded again, drawing the raven-haired woman's attention. The woman silently walked over while Caridad and Cagalli continued their conversation._

_"NOTHING!" Cagalli spluttered as the woman walked over. "What would he have to do with him?"_

_Caridad blinked at the question. _If she doesn't know... _"Then why are you looking for Kira?"_

_"He shoved me into a shelter and I wanted to make sure he got to one okay." Caridad stared at her, pondering the odds of an accidental meeting. "I'd twisted my ankle," Cagalli continued. "And there was just the one seat. They sent him on to Shelter 37. It still showed free space." Cagalli turned to face the police officer. "You have a name now. Could you please check and see if he's registered as entering the shelter?" _

_"He isn't. Shelter 37 experienced an entrance lift malfunction. No one entered it."_

_"YOU COULDN'T HAVE TOLD ME THAT FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO!?" _

_"Aube's not in the business of informing perfect strangers about each other," the man replied stiffly. _

_"I WASN'T ASKING FOR ANYTHING MORE THAN HIS SAFE ARRIVAL!" _

_"Could you please tell me if he checked into another shelter?" Caridad asked, hoping to forestall a full-fledged argument between the man and the girl. _

_The man checked his handheld. "He's not listed," he replied after a minute. "But it's possible he didn't check in. Not everyone who entered the shelters did." He turned to Cagalli. "Which shelter did you check into?" he asked. "You two can try tracing his path between the two--assuming he didn't just head home afterwards."_

_"Factory District Shelter 29," Cagalli bit out. "As I've told you before!"_

_"29? Are you sure about that?" the police officer asked sharply. _

_Cagalli glared at him. "Yes!" she snapped._

_"Impossible. 37 is over in the left block. The fastest path between the two would be to cross the catwalks over the Morgenroete docks."_

_"But that's where ZAFT and the Earth Forces were fighting over the prototype Mobile Suits!" Cagalli exclaimed. _

_"How'd you find out about them?" the raven-haired woman demanded, stepping around the police officer. "Does your father know?"_

_"So this mess is _your_ fault," Cagalli growled at her. "I should have known1"_

_"And what is that supposed to mean?" the woman demanded._

_"Look around!" Cagalli spat. "ZAFT would never have attacked us if you hadn't broken the treaty and collaborated with the Earth Forces!" _

_Caridad gasped at the revelation. After the day's events, she expected her nation might well be at war with the PLANTs now, but had they presumed Aube was about to declare war on them? _

_"OF ALL THE--_HOW_ DO YOU MANAGE TO GROW MORE NAÏVE EVERY TIME WE MEET?"_

_"NAÏVE! WHY I--"_

_Caridad turned to the police officer. "Kira was sent through a _battle zone_?" she asked. "Don't the evacuation protocols track events like that?"_

_"YES, ATHHA, NAÏVE!" the woman spat at the same time. "There is _nothing_ in our treaty that prevents private individuals and companies from accepting any clients they wish."_

_"MORGENROETE IS HALF OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT!" Cagalli shot back as a pair of men dressed in the uniform of the Earth Forces walked out of the Morgenroete area. One had short navy hair, and the other wavy bond hair with blue eyes. "_ANYTHING_ THEY DO CAN BE CONSTRUED AN ACT OF WAR!" Cagalli took a deep breath, and mercifully dropped volume. "And why are you worried about my father finding out, if you didn't do anything wrong?"_

_"Don't worry," the police office turned away from the bickering nobles to address Caridad. "Since he knew about the fighting, I'm sure he looked for shelter in another direction. Have you tried checking to see if he went home after the all-clear?"_

"_Yes," Caridad replied._

_"Because _Lord_," the raven-haired woman filled the single word with a with more scorn than Caridad would have thought possible,_ _"Uzumi's almost as stupid as you! The Earth Alliance will eventually win this war, and your father's polices could set us at odds with both sides if things go wrong. We need access to the Alliance's technology for our own protection."_

_"The technology ZAFT just seized?" Cagalli spat back. "Congratulations. I give them a day before they find out everything there is to know about it."_

_"Excuse me, Miss Sahaku?" the blond Alliance soldier asked as he reached him. Caridad absently noted the lieutenant's bars on his shoulders. _

_The black-haired woman turned to him. "Lady Sahaku," she corrected harshly. "And we're not extending your deadline. Finish your business and get off the colony!"_

_The blond lieutenant handed the charred remains of a tri-fold wallet to her. A corner and a fold were burned away. "We found a body that wasn't ours, and wasn't in a ZAFT suit." Caridad's blood ran cold as she spotted the stitched star pattern on the blackened wallet. Kira's turquoise wallet had the same pattern. "There's an ID that we think might be Morgenroete related." _

_"Is it Heliopolis Tech student ID?" Caridad asked quietly. "Was there a crescent-moon medallion in there?"_

_"Kira may have just dropped it, Ms. Yamato," Cagalli said. "We crossed some of the catwalk as we tried to find our way out of Morgenroete." _

_"_You_ ran through a battle, Athha?" Lady Sahaku asked, her disbelief obvious in her tone._

_"Around it. All the fighting was down on the dock floor," Cagalli replied. "We had to duck and stay low, but we made it through."_

_"So when he was directed to the left block shelters, he may have decided he could make it through again," Caridad realized._

_"The passage beyond the catwalks doesn't exist anymore," the navy-haired soldier remarked. "If he tried, he could have been forced down into the battle, where we--I'm sorry. I hope it's not him."_

_"Where's the body?" Caridad asked._

_"Ma'am," the blond haired lieutenant spoke. "It'll take DNA from tooth pulp for a positive ID. Since there's a chance whoever you're looking for might not be him, you should let the local coroner determine his identity."_

_"Where. Is. The. Body?" Caridad repeated. She turned toward Morgenroete and saw more Earth Forces personnel removing some stuff from the wreckage. They loaded it onto a truck. Beyond the truck, she spotted a cluster of sheet-covered litters. Caridad dropped her shoes and phone. As their clatter drew the soldiers' and rescue workers' attention, Caridad dashed past them and sprinted up the way. She could hear shouting after her, but ignored them. Shards of glass or other debris sliced into her left foot. She hissed in pain and hobbled on. The lieutenant caught up with her just as she reached the other soldiers, who had moved to intercept her._

_"Where is the unidentified body?" she demanded of them, ignoring the men behind her. _

_"I understand that your son is missing," the lieutenant spoke up, reaching forward to grab her elbow. "But you really don't need to see this, even if they do determine it's him."_

_Caridad pulled her arm free. "It's not your place to coddle me. Now I want to see that body." _

_"It's over there," a stocky man with brown hair gestured to a litter set off to the side. _

_"Pal!" the lieutenant protested. _

_"You're not gonna stop her. Trust me."_

_Caridad ignored them as she made her way over to the litter. She pulled the sheet completely off the body. The scent of burnt meat flew up and assaulted her nose. In some parts of the body, the fire had reached the bone before the colony's fire suppression systems had quenched the flames. The right leg, chest and lower left arm had more flesh than the rest of the body, suggesting he had fallen at an odd angle. A few scraps of cloth remained around his wrist, and seared to other parts of his body, along with a few blackened buckles. "The skeleton's height is equivalent to Kira's," she spoke as clinically as she could, while wiping a tear from her eye. "And he favored clothes with decorative buckles." She turned to the Aube officer. "I want a comparison to his DNA profile. I'll provide the data. Just--" Caridad swallowed hard as she choked up. "Just give me the number of your lab."_

_

* * *

_

_Katherine stared at the floor as she slowly glided through the halls of the _Vesalius_. The prospect of answering Le Creuset's questions about Kira was not something she looked forward to, even before she learned the truth. _And I can't tell him about that, _she thought morosely. Katherine sighed and closed her eyes. Everything she knew about the incidents of psychic phenomena in Coordinators suggested her recent conversation was the stuff of delusion. _And yet…

_Katherine grabbed her right wrist. Under the cuff of her uniform jacket, she could feel the bracelet. Its red stone gave a pulse of heat, as if in response to her unspoken question. And if the bracelet really existed--_

_"HEY! WATCH IT!" Katherine's eyes snapped open as she lifted her head. She blushed furiously as she realized that she had nearly plowed into an engineer. _

_"Sorry!" she blurted as she adjusted her course back to the right side of the hall. As she continued on, she could hear the man muttering some less then complimentary things under his breath. Katherine sighed and turned to the left. A short distance down the hall, and she reached the door to Le Creuset's office. When no response came from her knocking, she continued on past Ades' office and went up to the bridge. _

_"…Best bet would be to head to Artemis," she heard Le Creuset speaking as the lift doors opened. He and Ades stood on the far side of the tactical table. She saw the backs of Matt, Olor and Miguel. "The _Vesalius _and Miguel will wait here to intercept. Olor, Matthew, you will transfer to the _Gamow _and lie in wait here, and close in on the ship after we've engaged it. Of course, should they be foolish enough to make for the moon, the reverse will be true."_

_Matthew nodded. "Of course. But sir, why bother with an ambush? Why not just go in now? It's not like the ship has any fighters besides the Moebius Zero."_

_"That Zero is piloted by a formidable enemy ace," Le Creuset admonished. "You would do well not to underestimate it. And as for location of the battle… the reported fallout of the raid suggests that not all of Orb's government knew about their involvement in the G-project. Whether or not that's true, the fact is the prototype ship did not blast its way free until after we seized the Mobile Suits. As a result, the populace seems to be less happy with the Earth Forces than with us. It's in our interest not to antagonize them further, if it keeps their homeland from joining the alliance." _

_"But we all ready attacked," Matthew persisted._

_"And now we're hearing about damaged shelters and lost civilians in the factory district."_

_Katherine gasped and turned back into the lift. _

_"We'll look better if--" _

_"Katherine!" she heard Ades exclaim before the doors closed. _

_

* * *

_

_Ades' exclamation drew the attention of Le Creuset and the pilots. "Continue the briefing. I'll speak with her," Ades said as he glided to the second lift. _

_"She hasn't debriefed yet?" Miguel asked. _

_"That's not your concern," Le Creuset replied sharply. "Now we do not know what prototype arms and armor the ship may have, so you'll be equipped with the type D configuration…"_

_Under his mask, Le Creuset glanced over at the lift Katherine had entered. _I wonder…

_

* * *

_

_Katherine had not gone far. When Ades exited the lift, he found her across the way, staring out the window. "Katherine?"_

_The girl jumped around. "Sir!" she hastily saluted. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrupt the briefing." _

_"It's almost done," Ades replied. "I take it you came to give the commander your report about the suit capture and your friend."_

_"Yeah," Katherine answered dully as she looked down. "I'm sorry it took a while, I just… It…" Katherine turned to look at him. "Sir, about what the commander was saying…" _

_"We received word from his spy. It seems that the new warship survived unscathed."_

_"And civilians could not get to shelter…" Katherine muttered, staring out at the stars. "Kira… He was there. He grabbed my arm while I fought with the woman. And I'd stabbed him before I even recognized him. He had started to say something. 'Why are you'. I thought he'd recognized me, but… What if… A civilian would try to run away from the fighting, wouldn't they? But his parents were Naturals. Neutral territory--" Katherine ran a hand through her hair. "He wasn't armed. What if... I made a mistake."_

_Ades sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What exactly happened on the dock?" he asked. _

_"Rusty and I got pinned between a pair of crates. Peter was trying to slip onto the catwalk and snipe the Earth soldiers on the dock. There was an explosion by one of the crates. The enemies behind our position were taken out. One of the soldiers on the dock got Rusty. I think one of them got Peter as he got them. There were two left, though just the woman was armed. I raced up the suit as she rearmed. My pistol got her shoulder, but I'd run out of bullets. There was a dagger--I'd grabbed it from the transport crate. I sprinted foreword and stabbed the woman. Someone grabbed my arm and shouted. I spun and slashed the blade, and it was Kira dying."_

_Ades frowned. "If a civilian wandered into a battle, I might tell him to stay behind me or a nearby cover. But civilian or not, attacking a soldier bare-handed is a foolish move. You had to react on the presumption he was armed with a blade or attempting to capture you. Turning your back on him _was_ a mistake. When shots were being traded, the woman _was _the greater threat, but you dismissed him too quickly."_

_Katherine looked down. "So if I'd paid more attention to Kira, maybe I wouldn't have… It doesn't make any sense for him to have joined the Earth Forces."_

_"Why?" Ades asked. "Because you'd rather he hadn't?"_

_"He's a Coordinator," Katherine replied._

_"So?" Ades asked. "Not all Coordinators agreed with the PLANTs' push for independence. I know of one, a Jean Carrey, I believe that left the PLANTs before the war broke out. I believe she's first-generation too."_

_"But the Bloody Valentine, the way they've treated the PLANTs…"_

_"I'm sure most of the Earth Alliance population views Junius Ten's destruction as a rouge act. You don't see the PLANTs' side of things from the surface." Ades sighed and turned to stare out at the stars. "My family lived in Colorado for generations. Moving to the PLANTs was not a choice I made lightly. It was a culture shock to discover just how oppressive the trade quotas were. I wouldn't have understood the autonomy movement before I immigrated. Copernicus City is Atlantic Federation territory," he added, remembering the location of the prep school listed in Katherine's file._

_"Look, I'm not saying he was a soldier, just that there's no way to know. Battle entails split second decisions, and sometimes tragedy results. But a soldier who can't make those decisions for fear of a mistake dies. Sometimes they drag the rest of their unit down with them. You reacted in the heat of the moment and it was the necessary reaction. It is no different from any of your past battles or the scenarios covered in the academy."_

_"But he might not have--"_

_"It's not like you were deliberately searching for civilians to hit. The problem is that you knew him, and you're searching for a reason not compare him to the other soldiers you killed." Fred turned to leave, but placed a hand on her shoulder first. "It's okay to mourn him, Katherine. For the friendship you once shared, even if he was an enemy--or an innocent. It's probably futile to tell you not to feel any guilt, but you can't let it destroy you. If not for your sake, than for Nicole and the rest of your team. Every single one of you depends on the each other for survival out there."_

_Fred pulled his hand free and pushed off toward the lift. "Get some rest. I'll talk to Commander Le Creuset."_

_"Yes sir," Katherine mumbled as she turned to stare out the window again._

_Fred sighed as the doors closed to take him up a level to the bridge. He hoped that he had reached her. _You can't let guilt rule you, _he thought, glancing down at a photo he pulled from a pocket. It showed a younger Fredrick Ades and a five year-old boy on a hiking trail in the Rockies, the sun setting behind them. _No matter how hard a struggle it is…

_

* * *

_

_"MIRIALLIA!" _

_"DAD!" the auburn haired girl replied as she turned toward the shout. Reversing course, Miriallia dashed across the street. Her father met her halfway. While not an athletic man--Jonathan Haw was panting from the exertion of his sprint and earlier walking--he still managed to squeeze the breath out of her as he pulled her into a bear hug. "Thank god," her father choked out, tears in his eyes. "When I heard they assaulted the factory district and that half the shelters were damaged..." _

_"I'm all right," Miriallia murmured when it became clear that her father wasn't going to finish. _

_"Yes," her father nodded as he finally released her. "Come. Your mother's waiting at home."_

_"No," Miriallia shook her head. "Yes, I was coming to let you guys know I'm okay, but Tolle stayed to look for Kira, and--" _

_Her father frowned. "Kira?" he asked sharply. "Yamato? From your class?"_

_Miriallia nodded. "We got separated during the evacuation of Morgenroete. The professor's guest ran off, and Kira went after her. We couldn't find them after the last suit left, and--Anyway, since I found you, I should go on to Tolle's and let his folks know he's all right. And then… I'm to check at Kira's, see if he went there. That's what they're encouraging everyone to do--go home." She closed her eyes. "I'm not sure what I'll say if he's not there. I don't want to worry them."_

_Miriallia felt her father's arm wrap around her shoulders. "That's not an easy thing to do alone," he commented softly._

_"Sai's no good at not worrying people," Miriallia said as she opened her eyes and stared at the ground. "So we sent him to his and Karrie's parents. Tolle's the best at getting total strangers to answer questions, and Karrie could never stand to leave her wallet in her locker. I'd always made fun of her for slipping it into her pocket, but now she's the only one with her Morgenroete pass, so we gave her our locker keys and sent her after our bookbags with notes of permission. _

_"Assuming the guards or police or whoever allow it--and if that part of the complex is even standing," Miriallia added. "There was an explosion in the dock area, but I didn't see how far it spread before the suppression systems put it out."_

_"You saw the fire?" her father asked sharply._

_Miriallia nodded. "We were a few blocks away, trying to find a working shelter--the explosion definitely came from Morgenroete. And we have no idea if--where--Kira got out."_

_Her father squeezed her shoulder. "Would you like me to go to the Yamatos' for you?"_

_"I can't just wait. I have to do something."_

_"Okay. I'll talk to your mother while you run by the Koenigs'. Then I'll meet and walk with you to the Yamatos' place."_

_"Thanks." Miriallia smiled sadly as she gave her father a quick hug._

_

* * *

_

_The red and white ship lifted up from the colony floor. It rose majestically as the colony rotated clockwise underneath it. As the vessel neared the central support shaft, more of Heliopolis' residents spotted it. By the time it navigated through its way into the harbor, numerous eyes glared after it. The collective sentiment as the ship vanished from sight was "Good riddance"._

_

* * *

_

_Charles Badgerial gripped his armrests as the _Archangel _maneuvered through the hole they blasted from the docks. The monitors showed repair crews waiting to the sides to weld large metal plates over the damage. The ship eased into the cleared path to the harbor and turned to the colony's exit. In minutes, they emerged into the vast field of stars._

_"Set course for the moon," Charles ordered._

_"You sure?" La Flaga asked._

_Charles nodded. "We may be short on supplies, but as short as we are on staff, I believe we can make them last. And given that Artemis is an Eurasian outpost… I'd rather avoid them."_

_La Flaga nodded. "I understand."_

_"I just hope we don't run into ZAFT along the way." Charles grumbled. _The only thing that may save us is they're thinking they all ready sunk us.

_

* * *

_

_"The White Ship has exited Heliopolis," Penobscot reported. "They're turning toward the moon."_

_"Let them get halfway to the _Gamow_," Ades ordered. "Then move to flank at full speed."_

_"Aye sir," Rochelle Burns, a petite black woman, replied from the navigator's chair. She quickly plotted and inputted the planned course._

_

* * *

_

_Katherine stared out at space. She had not moved from her spot since her talk with Captain Ades._

_"He made some good points," Kira said as Birdy swooped into the lounge and landed on her shoulder. Katherine turned to the right. Kira floated there, gazing out at the same stars Katherine had been watching. _

_Katherine sighed and turned back to the stars. "Is Aube going to join the war?"_

_"It's too soon to say. The attack raised anger in our residents, but it could be directed at either side--or our own government." Kira sighed. "I'm more worried about my friends and family right now, than my country as a whole."_

_"They must be so worried, wondering what happened to you." Katherine thought back to her days on the moon. While she had been a boarder at Stanfelt Prep, Kira and his parents lived a few blocks over. Katherine had loved spending time at his place, and had grown fond of his parents. _God, how can I ever face them again? _she thought. _But they deserve to know what happened to him…

_"My mom's all ready seen what's left of my body," Kira replied. "Cagalli, too. She's m--" Kira's purple eyes widened. His face reminded Katherine of the time she helped the Yamatos throw him a surprise party. Katherine had just opened her mouth to speak, when Kira blinked and resumed speaking. "They know that I was directed to a shelter that would have trapped me in the battlefield. The exact how--and who--doesn't need to be known."_

_Katherine swallowed and stared out the window. "I suppose it will be easy enough to avoid Auntie Caridad and Uncle Haruma," she murmured. _

_Kira stared sadly at the floor. "If Mom decides to seek you out, she'll realize you're trying to avoid her and not rest until she gets the truth. In that case, it would be better coming from you, but don't seek them out." Kira turned to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "While they would eventually come to understand and forgive you, the--"_

_"THEY SHOULDN'T!" Katherine protested. "YOU DIDN'T DESERVE--"_

_"You want them too," Kira replied. "Just as much as you want them to hate you. And they might at first, but they're too fond of you… Forgiveness isn't forgetting. Confession won't bring you what you seek, and knowing who killed me will only increase their pain."_

_Kira vanished. Katherine turned and found a green-uniformed soldier staring at her from down the hall. Katherine flushed and dashed past him, headed toward the room she shared with Nicole._

_

* * *

_

_"Launch GINNs!" Zelman ordered as the _Gamow_ emerged from behind an asteroid to intercept the enemy vessel. "Target main guns at the White Ship's engines!"_

_

* * *

_

_"Laurasia class dead ahead!" Pal exclaimed. "GINNs launching!"_

_"Charge Lohengrin!" Charles ordered. "Reverse course! Ready Korinthos! La Flag--"_

_The blond pilot was all ready racing toward the bridge door. "I'll be ready for launch in a minute," he called over his shoulder as the doors opened and he exited the bridge._

_"Good," Charles said as the door closed behind him, though he doubted it was possible to suit up and reach the cockpit _that _quickly. _At least he's taking things seriously, for a change. _Charles turned to the approaching GINNs. _D equipment_, he thought as Pal reported the same. "Fire at wi--EVADE!" he ordered as the Laurasia fired at them._

_Neuman barrel-rolled the _Archangel _away from the blast while Tonomura fired a flurry of missiles at the GINNs. The mobile suits dodged the missiles, destroying the ones that could threaten their mothership. "Nazca class approaching rapidly from seven o'clock!" Pal called._

_"Target Gottfrieds! Change course! Do not let them pinch us!"_

_

* * *

_

_"It's my fault," Cagalli murmured as she sat beside Mrs. Yamato. They occupied a bench in the morgue's waiting room. Somewhere behind the wall at their backs, and assistant medical examiner had pulled a tooth from the body to extract DNA undamaged by the extreme heat. All they had to do was wait for the comparison to Kira's profile. Cagalli had told the woman--and herself--that the body could be someone else, the odds and her gut told her a different story. From the stony way the blue-haired woman next to her stared at the opposite wall, she felt the same._

_"You didn't tell him to run back into a battle," she said flatly._

_"No," Cagalli agreed, staring at her injured ankle. The painkillers the paramedics gave her had begun to wear off, causing it to throb even when she kept it still. "But if I'd just evacuated with the rest instead of running off to check--he'd never have had to run after me."_

_"You didn't tell him to that, either."_

_"No." Tears welled in Cagalli's eyes. "I just had to see for myself that the Earth Forces' prototypes existed, though I knew in my gut that was what ZAFT was after. It was so stupid and selfish, I didn't even think about--"_

_"THEN THINK BETTER IN THE FUTURE!" Mrs. Yamato snapped, a bite of anger finally filling her words. "We can't turn back time, but we can learn from what happens. And Kira--You're foolish actions may have contributed, but you didn't kill him." The woman sighed, and when she spoke again, she only sounded tired. "You'll be our Chief Representative someday, Cagalli. And if you want to accomplish more than being a figurehead, you need to learn how to anticipate possibilities while accepting that there are things beyond your control."_

_Cagalli had opened her mouth to reply when the door across from them opened. _

_

* * *

_

_Tolle glanced sideways at Haruma Yamato as they followed the orderly through the doors. Kira's father looked to have aged ten years since receiving his wife's frantic text. _

_"Haruma!" Mrs. Yamato exclaimed as she leaped from her chair and threw her arms around him. _

_"Any word yet?" Mr. Yamato asked._

_Mrs. Yamato shook her head against her husband's chest. "We're still waiting."_

"_We?"_

"_Cagalli's here." Mr. Yamato's eyes widened. "The kids met during the evacuation of Morgenroete."_

"_Does she…" he trailed off and glanced at Tolle._

"_I don't think so," Caridad replied as Tolle left the Yamatos to their conversation and walked further into the room. A small area, it had only a handful of chairs. One held a blonde. A pair of crutches leaned against the wall next to her. He walked over to the brown-uniformed girl. _

_"You're the professor's guest, right?" he asked. _

_The girl gave a curt nod. "You're one of Kira's friends?"_

"_Yeah."_

_"He shoved me into a shelter with one spot left," she said dully. _

_"Oh," Tolle said. "You were lucky," he continued not sure what else to say. "We couldn't find a single available space."_

_"At least you're here. He might--"_

_The door by the chairs opened. A pink haired woman walked into the room. With a grim expression, she strode over to Kira's parents and spoke with them. _

_"NO!" Mrs. Yamato wailed as she sobbed into her husband's chest, who looked like he had been hit over the head. The blonde beside him winced as Tolle realized he would never see his kind friend again._

_

* * *

_

_Mu launched out of the portside bay, and immediately veered and rolled left to avoid fire from the oncoming GINN. One of the GINN's standard missiles impacted the edge of the bay door as it lowered back down. _

_Mu circled back to the GINN and deployed his gunbarrels. The GINN backed away from him and aimed it's beam rifle at Mu's cockpit as a second GINN fired large, fortress-killing missiles at the _Archangel_. Mu dived the Zero as a flurry of missiles from the _Archangel _intercepted the missiles_ _from the GINN. Mu fired two gunbarrels at each GINN. He recalled the gunbarrels and rolled over. With both GINNs now "below" him, Mu dove at the first one. He fired and dodged missiles from the second GINN as the Laurasia class ship fired on the _Archangel_. An arm sheared off the first GINN, and the Moebius Zero lost a gunbarrel. Mu ejected the pod before it could damage his mobile armor. Quickly extinguished bursts of flame indicated more missile hits on the _Archangel_. _

_Mu looped around and deployed his three remaining gunbarrels._

_The _Archangel _abruptly turned to face the closing Nazca class ship. It blasted a stream of anti-matter at its bridge. The Nazca veered to the side._

_

* * *

_

_Katherine was thrown off her bed as the _Vesalius' _momentum abruptly changed. She rose up and to the right. As she reached out to catch herself on the wall over Nicole's bunk, the whole ship shuddered. Katherine quickly flipped around and kicked herself to the computer terminal as various orders blared over the intercom. A single touch pulled up a damage assessment to the ship. One of the engines was damaged, along with a section of the hull. At least two crewmen had died. _

_Katherine turned to the door. If she could not fight, perhaps she could help with the emergency crews…_

_

* * *

_

_Olor cursed as Matthew lost his GINN's other arm to the Moebius Zero. Olor had managed to avoid taking damage, but he had only destroyed one of the gunbarrels. Another showed damage, but it retained function. "It's just one damn Natural," he growled as he fired another flurry of medium-powered missiles. The Zero avoided them, though Olor successfully destroyed the damaged gun barrel. The Zero banked around and fired at him while the two gunbarrels fired at Matthew. _

_Matthew's GINN exploded. Its remaining missiles fired off in a random direction before they could be destroyed with the GINN. _

_Olor screamed in fury as he swooped down at the mobile armor. The Zero turned his full attention to him. _

_

* * *

_

_"Attention all residents," the Heliopolis' PA sprang to life. Miriallia and her father stopped at a street corner. "ZAFT has engaged the Earth Forces in nearby space. As the battle may drift our way, we advise all residents to seek shelter. Repeat. ZAFT has--"_

_"I hate those things," a brown-haired woman complained. "So damn claustrophobic."_

_"It's not mandatory," her companion advised as they walked past the Haws._

_"Is this what it's going to be like from now on?" Miriallia asked as her father steered them toward the nearest shelter. "If we go to war with ZAFT."_

_Her father did not answer. He just put his arm around her._

_

* * *

_

_The White Ship raced toward the _Vesalius_, the Moebius Zero following. The orange Mobile Armor dodged fire from Olor's pursuing GINN. The White Ship fired all missile tubes as it met and passed the _Vesalius_. The _Vesalius_ intercepted most of the missiles with its own, then launched Miguel's GINN. Miguel flew after the ship, aiming his large missiles at the ship's engines. He had just fired when the Moebius Zero caught up with him. Miguel turned and fired standard missiles at the Zero. The orange fighter managed to avoid his shots, though Olor took out the enemy's last gunbarrel. The Zero flipped around and fired into Olor's cockpit. _

_Miguel screamed in rage and fired at the Mobile Armor again. The Zero twisted away as Miguel pulled the trigger._

_

* * *

_

_The _Archangel _backed away from the closing ZAFT ships. "Status of Lohengrin?" Charles demanded. _

_"Still charging! Thirty seconds!"_

_"Target Nazca when read--EVADE!" he called as a hail of missiles came from the Laurasia. "Intercept!" The _Archangel _rolled as it shot at the enemy missiles. A few made it past the shielding fire and slammed into the _Archangel's _side. _

_"La Flaga's taken a hit! He can still maneuver, though."_

_

* * *

_

"_Beam canons charged!" Patel called out._

"_Target the White Ship's bridge!" Ades ordered. _

_A sudden flash of insight filled Le Creuset's awareness. "Adjust targeting a degree starboard and half a degree down!" He snapped. Patel followed without question. The shots impacted one of the White Ship's nacelles. The enemy ship pitched down and to the side as it fired its anti-matter cannon. The stream blasted past the _Vesalius_, and began to dissipate. However, the majority of the particles impacted the side of Heliopolis as it rotated. They left a gouge in the colony._

_Under his mask, Le Creuset raised an eyebrow. _Father, perhaps I can still do it…

_

* * *

_

_The colony shuddered and threw Caridad forward. Her purse came open and spilled its contents on the ground and into the still open lift. Inside the lift, Tolle knelt down to help pick them up. Caridad shoved his hand back into the lift. "You two go on down," she said firmly. "You can return them in the shelter." Without waiting for a response, Caridad pushed the button to send the kids and the other two occupants down to the shelter. As the lift descended, debris from the blasted hole hit the central shaft. Caridad and Haruma gathered her stuff from the ground, trying to ignore the series of explosion that rolled along the central shaft in response to the impact. "Damn Sahakus," Caridad grumbled._

_

* * *

_

_Karrie hissed in pain as she grabbed her wrist. She had landed wrong when the shaking had thrown her off the pile of debris she had scaled to get in and out of Morgenroete. She forced herself to her feet, cursing her decision to sneak into the damaged building: she had only managed to retrieve everyone's stuff when the latest evacuation notice had sounded. As she had seen no sign that Kira had been trapped in the collapsed halls, she had transferred all phones, wallets and laptops to Tolle's backpack and left the rest, hoping that she had not overlooked any disks with school projects on them._

_Karrie looked up and saw a hole in the opposite side of the colony, and smoke falling from the central shaft. Eyes wide, she sprinted off in search of a shelter. Tolle's bag kept hitting her right elbow, causing fresh pain in her wrist. Karrie did her best to ignore it, hoping that she would find a working shelter--And that the colony had not ordered a lockdown._

_

* * *

_

"_My God!" Neuman gasped, staring at the damaged colony._

"_PAY ATTENTION!" Badgerial snapped. Neuman registered the incoming beam blasts and scrambled to avoid them. "GETTING SUNK WON'T DO ANYONE ANY GOOD!"_

_

* * *

_

_The orange Zero ducked around the missiles from the _Vesalius_ and the missiles Miguel fired as he chased him. "Miguel, back off!" Ades ordered. "We can't effectively target with you in the way."_

_Miguel reluctantly complied. Before long, the Zero's linear gun scored a hit on one of the _Vesalius' _railguns. The _Vesalius' _launched a flurry of 58-millimeter slugs. The Zero had to pull away from the _Vesalius _to avoid them all. Miguel reacted instantly, flying to intercept the Zero. The Zero turned and fired. Miguel ducked and returned the favor. The Zero suddenly veered upwards. The next moment, Le Creuset's white CGUE launched from the _Vesalius _racing after the Zero. _

_

* * *

_

_The lift doors opened and the occupants hastily entered the shelter. Cagalli hobbled over to the nearest empty seat--the shelter was only half full, so she did not have long to go. That Tolle guy sat next to her, a few of Mrs. Yamato's possessions in his arms. _

"_Hazard level nine," a mechanical voice announced. "This shelter is going into lockdown."_

"_The Yamatos!" Cagalli gasped as Tolle raced to the control panel, dumping Mrs. Yamato's stuff on Cagalli's lap. _

"_Please!" he begged. "There are two more just right outside the shelter!"_

"_The colony is at hazard level nine. The shelter must protect the air supply for its current occupants."_

"_It would only take a minute!" _

"_The colony is at hazard level ni--"_

"_ARRR!" Tolle slammed his fist on the console._

_

* * *

_

_Le Creuset continued to chase after the Orange Zero. The pilot dodged well, but his battery should drain soon. Le Creuset smirked in satisfaction. "That is you, isn't Mu La Flaga?" he mused aloud. Due to the urgency of the situation, he had launched without changing into a pressure suit. _

_Le Creuset fired off several missiles. As they launched, the Zero veered toward the side--into Miguel's path. Miguel fired as the zero's linear gun blasted at his GINN. Miguel ducked to the side, but the blast clipped Miguel's suit and short-circuited his missile control. Le Creuset could hear Miguel's curses as all his missiles launched. The regular sized ones spiraled around, some taking each other out as they finally oriented on the Zero's enemy signature. The orange fighter pulled away from the _Vesalius_. The large, fortress destroyers however, were programmed to lock onto the largest enemy structure they could detect. Instead of thrusting at the White Ship, they turned toward the _Vesalius_. For one horrid second, Le Creuset thought they had failed to recognize the _Vesalius'_ friendly signal. But they bypassed the Nazca cruiser, which shot down two of them. The remaining two sped towards the colony of Heliopolis. The corners of Le Creuset's lips twitched. _Oh my…

"_FUCK!" _

It seems Miguel's realized the missiles' course, _Le Creuset thought._

"Vesalius_! I can't override them!" _

"_They're not responding to our commands either!" Ades replied. _"We're still trying, b--"

"_Then we can only hope the colony survives the damage," Le Creuset replied. "Miguel, can you return to the hangar on your own?"_

"_Wha--Uh, yes, sir."_

"_Do it. I'll worry about the Zero." Exhilaration filled him as he accelerated toward the approaching Mu La Flaga. A pleased smirk graced his lips at the thought of eliminating the bastard Da Flaga's spawn. Behind him, the missiles hit their target. _

_

* * *

_

_Caridad and her husband sat on the ground, their backs to the locked shelter. They had decided to wait for the kids to come back up rather than go anywhere else._

_If the kids came back up._

_Keeping her chin on the arms hugging her knees, Caridad looked up at the smoke in the distance. It curled around toward a black line on the ground. Caridad sighed and looked back at her feet. The colony was still losing air. Emergency crews should be racing to seal the breach, but if there was still fighting nearby, Heliopolis could take more hits. With the emotional hole left by Kira's death, Caridad found it hard to care. At least they knew one of his friends would be safe. And Cagalli. Of all the times for her to breeze into their lives… "The kids have my mobile," Caridad suddenly realized. "I had the photo album open."_

_Haruma turned sharply toward her. "You keep the device password-protected, right?"_

_Caridad shook her head. "Critical files and programs are passworded separately."_

"_I doubt they'd just look. Besides, Lord Uzu--"_

_A sudden explosion rocked the colony. Caridad looked up to see the support shaft crumbling apart. Beside her, Haruma grabbed her shoulders. Caridad turned into the embrace. _Kira, baby, we're coming…

_

* * *

_

"_Alert level ten," the shelter's mechanical voice informed the occupants. "This colony may be ejec--Colony collapsing. Compulsory evacuation now in effect."_

_Jonathon Haw grabbed and squeezed his daughter's hand as the lifeboat started to launch. Suddenly the other side of the shelter blew in, fire and shrapnel pelting them._

_

* * *

_

"_One of Miguel's missiles managed to find its way through the hole the White Ship left," Penobscot reported as lifeboats launched from Heliopolis. "We're registering internal explosions. The other appears to have taken out some lifeboats before they could launch."_

"_My God," Ades closed his eyes. "Pull us away from the colony," he ordered. "If it starts coming apart, I don't want to get hit by debris."_

_

* * *

_

YOU'RE GOING TO DIE ANYWAY!_ Karrie's mind screamed at her as she raced away from a falling support cable. It was true: without the central shaft, the colony would break apart under the momentum of its own rotation. _

_Karrie stopped and caught her breath as she cleared the stories-wide cable. Logically, she could see no point to avoid a crushing only to be thrown out into vacuum. And it certainly could not hurt worse than her arm alrea-- _

_A nearby building toppled as the cable rolled into it. Karrie screamed and ran until the ground pulled apart under her feet. She fell through the gap into bottomless space._


End file.
